


An Alien in Sunnydale

by phoenixnz



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-22
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2018-04-27 15:10:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 50,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5053564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixnz/pseuds/phoenixnz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lex is adopted by the Kents, who lose the farm and move the family to Sunnydale where they meet a certain Slayer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Lex and Buffy are about the same age. For the purposes of this story, Lex's birthdate is July 1980. Also Jonathan has an (invented) older brother (well, come on, Hiram was at least in his late thirties when Jonathan was born). Yes, there are still super powers in this story.
> 
> I'm not totally happy with the title, so I may change it.

SMALLVILLE 1989

The hospital was in chaos and had been for three days since the meteors hit. Jonathan Kent had no idea why he had been summoned, since most of his neighbours had been away from the meteor strike and hadn’t been hit.

He walked through the corridor, looking for room eighty-five, dodging the people still milling about. Some of them didn’t look to be too badly injured but a few appeared to be shell-shocked, their faces pale, eyes curiously blank.

He didn’t want to be dealing with some mysterious summons. He had a farm to take care of and a little boy who was still trying to get used to this strange new world. Martha was having a terrible time trying to handle him. He seemed to be much stronger than a boy should be at his age, but considering the nature of his arrival, Jonathan thought anything was possible.

Room eighty, eighty-one … eighty-five. He put a hand on the door handle, noticing the little boy in the bed. He couldn’t be older than ten. His head was completely bald. He had an oxygen tube in his nose. A woman with red hair was sitting beside the bed.

As Jonathan entered, the woman got up. He frowned. He recognised her immediately.

“Lillian,” he said.

She smiled wanly at him.

“Hello Jonathan. It’s been a long time.”

The last time he had seen Lillian Albrecht was at his brother’s funeral nine years earlier. Hiram Junior had been killed in a car wreck. The only Kent who had chosen not to stay on the farm and had gone to Metropolis, seeking his fortune.

“This is my son, Alexander,” she said, gesturing toward the boy sleeping in the bed.

Jonathan frowned at her.

“I don’t understand,” he replied.

“He’s your nephew, Jonathan.”

Slowly, Lillian began to tell the story. She had learned she was pregnant shortly before Hiram’s death, but had never got the chance to tell him. A month after the funeral, she had met Lionel Luthor, a businessman. Jonathan had heard rumours about Lionel Luthor but didn’t voice his thoughts to the man’s widow. Lionel had been killed in the meteor shower, while looking for his young son, who had been wandering in a corn field while Lionel had been negotiating the purchase of the creamed corn factory.

Lionel had, of course, known that Alexander was not his, but he had taken him on, marrying Lillian shortly before the boy was born. It was a marriage of convenience. Lillian had money, Lionel needed it. His business had been failing and he needed an urgent cash injection.

He’d taken the money and turned the business around, but not without a few shortcuts. Lillian had been well aware of her husband’s less-than-ethical business dealings.

Now he was dead, and the boy who was supposedly his son was lying in a hospital bed.

“What’s wrong with him?” Jonathan said, looking at the boy who was as white as the sheets on the bed.

“The doctors don’t know. They think he was hit by a massive wave of radiation in the meteor shower.”

“Poor kid.”

Lillian looked at him, her blue eyes almost pleading.

“I need your help Jonathan.”

“To do what?”

“Raise my son.”

“I can’t …”

“I’m dying, Jonathan. I have cancer. The doctors say I have about six months at the most. I never told Lionel, not that he would have cared anyway. He was planning on raising Alexander in his image, which was the last thing I wanted for my son. You’re all he has left now.”

“Martha and I … we have a son.”

“Yes, I know. You just adopted him.”

Her gaze was shrewd. It seemed as if she knew more than she was telling.

Jonathan knew he had little choice in the matter. Lillian offered to help him with the adoption papers for Clark if he would also adopt Alexander … Lex, she called him.

Martha was going to kill him.


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new girl starts at Sunnydale High and already Lex sees something unusual about her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While this is seen through Lex's p.o.v, situations are the same as what was in the show, at least in the beginning. Knowing me, I'll have my patented twists. Also, I don't pretend to be as witty as Joss so I'm sure it'll be missing the Buffy puns, other than the dialogue I'm already borrowing.

January 1997

Lex sighed as he looked out the window of his father’s SUV. 

“Lex, did you hear me?”

“Yeah, Dad, I heard you.”

“I mean it, Lex. I don’t want to hear of you talking back to the teachers. Principal Flutie believes in giving kids second chances but you’re about on your fifth by now.”

“It’s not my fault, Dad. You know the other kids make fun of me.”

“Yeah, Dad, it’s not his fault.”

Lex turned his head and glared at the nine-year-old in the backseat.

“No one asked you, squirt.”

Clark poked his tongue out at him. Lex rolled his eyes. 

“God, why do I put up with you?” he said. “You’re nothing but a pain in my neck.”

“Lex,” Dad warned. “Be nice to your little brother.”

As Lex watched, he could see his best friend skateboarding down the sidewalk. Other students dodged out of his way before he became distracted by a girl walking up the steps and crashed into the railing. Lex snorted. His friend was such a dork.

“I gotta go, Dad.”

“Promise me you’ll behave yourself so I don’t have to ground you.”

“I promise, Dad, geez! Besides, it’s Bronze night tonight.”

“All the more reason for you to behave. And don’t forget to pick up Clark at his school. Your mother has to stay late at work and I don’t finish in the shop until dinner.”

Why me, he sighed, getting out of the car, nodding his agreement. He looked up at the sign and began trudging his way up the steps into Sunnydale High School.

He heard Xander and Willow talking. Xander, as usual, was complaining about his maths homework. His best friend tried to make out he wasn’t that bright, but if he applied himself he was just as smart as Lex. The trouble was, Xander didn’t think so.

As he entered, Jesse came up behind them. 

“Hey guys,” Lex said.

“Hey, hey.”

“So, what’s up?” Xander asked.

“New girl,” Jesse replied.

“Yeah, I saw her. Quite the hottie,” Xander said with an expression that Lex could only imagine was the usual teenage boy hormones. “What do we know about her?”

“New girl,” Jesse said with a shrug. Lex rolled his eyes and Willow smirked.

“Well, you’re certainly a fount of nothing,” Xander replied.

“Hopeless,” Lex said. 

“Mr Kent …”

Lex swallowed. Mr Flutie.

“Uh, catch you later guys,” he said. He turned and looked at the principal. “Mr Flutie?”

“How about you come to my office.”

“Whatever it was, I didn’t do it,” he said, following the older man to the office. 

“Lex, Lex, Lex,” the older man sighed. “I really don’t know what I’m going to do with you. Now I’ve spoken to your parents, and …”

“I’ve already had the lecture, thanks,” Lex said.

“Lex, your problem is you’re not applying yourself. At least, not to appropriate activities.”

“No, my problem is the other kids give me crap for no reason. Sir,” he added. 

“I understand your frustration, son …”

“I’m not your son. And you couldn’t possibly understand what it’s like to be treated like shit because you’re different.”

“Lex, you’re a good kid. I just want to help you.”

There was a knock on the door and the office secretary came in.

“Mr Flutie, the new student is waiting to see you.”

“Oh, of course. Lex, how about you get to your class now.”

“Yes Mr Flutie.”

He left the office, smiling at the new student. She was blonde and pretty. She was short but looked to be in good shape. She appeared to be nervous about something, but smiled back at him before entering the principal’s office.

Lex didn’t have a chance to learn anything about the new girl as he started his morning classes. As he was leaving calculus, he bumped into the campus queen bitch herself, Cordelia.

“Well, if it isn’t Lex the Loser,” Cordelia snarked.

“Hmm, very witty, Cordy. Got anymore in your repertoire?”

“Huh?”

“Stultus es,” he replied. It probably wasn’t a literal translation but the effect was the same.

“Huh?”

“My point exactly,” he told her. 

By the time he made it to lunch period if he had hair he would have torn it out in frustration. Cordy, Harmony and the rest of the idiots were driving him insane. Just as they had since his parents had moved them to Sunnydale three years earlier. 

He looked around until he saw Willow sitting alone. Just as he reached her, the new girl approached and began speaking to her. Willow looked a little confused, but then smiled as the new girl seemed friendly.

Lex sat down. The girl looked at him.

“Hi, I’m Lex,” he said.

“Buffy.”

“Buffy? Really?” he asked.

She rolled her eyes and laughed. “Yeah.”

Xander and Jesse rolled up. “Hey Lex, where ya been?” Xander asked.

“Class. What about you?”

“Here, there … you know how it is.”

“Oh, Buffy, this is Jesse and Xander.”

“Oh, we go way back. Old friends,” Xander said, leaving Buffy and the others to stare at him, bemused. “Then there was that period of estrangement.”

Weird, Lex thought. Definitely weird. Jesse seemed to echo that sentiment.

“So, Buffy, where did you transfer from?” Lex asked.

“L.A.”

“Lex lived in Kansas until three years ago. Came from some small town … what was it?” Xander asked.

Lex rolled his eyes at his friend. “Smallville. Which you know already. Why do you have to keep harping on about it?”

“Gee, I don’t know. Maybe because it’s ‘small’ ville.”

“You’re a dork!” Lex returned. 

“So how come you moved from L.A?” Willow asked.

“Uh, gee, everybody wants to know about me. How keen.” Buffy looked decidedly uncomfortable. Lex figured it was time to do some research.

“Well, my parents had to move because my mom’s father moved his law practice out here and offered her a job as a clerk. We had a farm before.”

“What happened to it?”

“Money sort of dried up around town. Bank foreclosed. Usual bull.”

“Yeah, there was some sort of meteor shower and weird stuff started happening,” Willow told the blonde.

A shadow fell across them and Lex looked up. 

“What do you want, Cordy?”

“Are these guys bothering you?” Cordelia asked Buffy.

“Not especially.”

“Oh, well I came to tell you that you won’t be meeting Coach Foster because gym was cancelled due to the extreme dead guy in the locker.” 

Cordelia looked completely outraged that her day was spoiled by the fact that someone had died on campus. Buffy seemed alarmed.

“Dead guy? Do you know how he died?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, were there any marks?”

“Gee morbid much?”

Marks? Lex thought. 

Buffy got to her feet telling them she needed to go, leaving them staring after her. 

They didn’t see Buffy for the rest of the day, although Xander seemed to be acting weirder than usual. He was quiet as they started the walk home.

“So, we Bronzing tonight?” Jesse asked.

“Yeah, that’s if my parents don’t ground me again,” Lex said. He suddenly remembered he had to pick up his brother and smacked his forehead. “Shit! I forgot about Clark. Mom and Dad are working late tonight. Oh man, Dad’s gonna kill me. I gotta book. See you tonight. Maybe.”

Lex turned and ran down the street for two blocks, then crossed the cemetery – one of about a dozen in town, which was weird in a town with a population of about 30,000, and ran another five blocks to the school. Clark was sitting on a bench, sulking, but looked up.

“You forgot!” he accused.

“Sorry,” he said.

“I could have run home and beat you there.”

“You know you’re not allowed,” Lex told him. “Dad said you weren’t supposed to use your speed. You could get caught and they’d put you in a lab.”

They started making their way toward home. 

“Yeah, yeah. Oh, there was a new girl at my school.”

“Yeah? Mine too.”

“What’s her name?”

“Buffy. Summers, I think.”

Clark shook his head. “Hers is Lane. Her dad’s in the army, or something.”

“Like her, huh?” Lex said.

“Eww, no! She’s a girl.”

“So’s Willow. You like her.”

“But she’s Willow. And she’s nice to me.”

Lex ruffled his kid brother’s hair. Clark might be a pain in the neck but he was a good kid. 

It was weird how life turned out sometimes. Lex had always thought his real dad was a guy named Lionel, but when he’d died in the meteor shower nearly eight years earlier, his mother had told him that his real father was someone who had died long before he was born. His real mom, Lillian, had asked the brother of his real dad to raise him, which was how he’d ended up with the Kents. Jonathan was his uncle, but Lex called him and his wife Martha ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’.

“C’mon kid.”

“Don’t call me kid.”

“I’ll call you squirt then.”

“I’m not a squirt either.”

Ohhhh-Kay, Lex thought. The kid was in a weird mood. 

“Are you going out tonight?” Clark asked.

“Was planning on it. Why?”

“I wanna go with you.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because the Bronze isn’t appropriate for little kids.”

The Bronze was the town’s local nightclub. Between five and ten on school nights, they allowed the high schoolers in. They did serve alcohol to adults but were fairly strict about making sure the kids didn’t drink under age. Lex’s parents let him go on the proviso that he stuck fairly close to his friends. 

A lot of weird things happened in this town. Most of the adults didn’t really talk about it much but Lex had heard of a few people who died of some mystery ailment.

Like the guy today, he thought. Buffy had seemed really wigged out about the guy in the locker. He wondered what she’d meant about the marks.

When he got home, he made sure Clark had a snack of cookies and milk. He grabbed a cookie for himself and a glass of juice and settled down in front of his computer, trying to figure out where to start looking for information. 

What he did find was, well, not disturbing as such but concerning. Buffy had been a student at Hemery High in L.A. She had been an average student, reasonably popular. Then about three months before, she had started getting into trouble. Nothing Lex could figure was the cause, but she had been seen with bruises, getting into fights. Then the school gym had been burned down and the finger had been pointed solely at Buffy. 

“What’cha doing?” 

Crumbs fell on the keyboard of his laptop.

“Clark, how many times do I have to tell you not to eat cookies around my computer?”

“Mmph, sowwy,” Clark mumbled through a mouthful of cookie. 

“You should be doing your homework.”

“Don’t want to. Want to see what you’re doing.” Clark peered at the screen. “Who’s that?”

“Never you mind,” Lex snapped. “God, why do you have to poke your nose into everything? I never get any goddamn privacy around here. And now I have to go start dinner!”

He didn’t mind cooking dinner one night a week, knowing his parents couldn’t help having to work late. On the farm, he’d had chores to do, so it wasn’t like they asked a lot of him. Still, having to babysit his pain in the neck kid brother and do his homework as well as cook dinner was sometimes annoying. Especially when Clark was forever asking questions. 

He got dinner started and went to sit down at his computer, only to find Clark was playing an online game. 

“Damn it, Clark, who said you could play on my computer?” he growled.

“Well, you weren’t …”

“I’ve told you before. Don’t touch my stuff. Stupid kid!”

“I’m not stupid! Don’t call me that!”

“Well, listen next time you little freak! When I tell you not to touch my stuff I mean, don’t touch my friggin’ stuff!”

“What’s going on here?”

Lex looked up, realising his dad had come in. 

“Dad, uh …”

“Lex is being mean,” Clark said, turning on the waterworks. Oh great, Lex sighed. Clark always turned on the crocodile tears when he was trying to make himself look the angel in front of their parents. “I was just playing.”

“Clark, you know Lex’s computer is for his homework.” 

Jonathan checked the screen and saw that homework was the last thing Lex had been doing, while Clark pouted and stomped off to the living room. Lex heard the television so Clark must have turned up the volume.

“This doesn’t look like homework,” he said.

“Um, Dad, I know what it looks like. I just … I needed to check something out.”

“On another student?” 

“Well …” He sighed. “I guess that means I’m grounded?”

“Now what do you think?” 

Lex bit his lip. “I guess I better go call Xander and tell him I won’t be there.”

“You think I’m being too harsh? You were shouting at Clark.”

“Well, he knows better than to get into my stuff,” Lex said.

“Yes, he does, but shouting at him isn’t going to make the problem fix itself is it? You need to be more patient with him, son.”

“I’ve tried patience. He just doesn’t listen.”

His father sat down at the table, gesturing for Lex to sit down beside him.

“Son, trust me, I know what you’re going through. Hiram and I had the same problem. But I need you to be the more mature one. Clark’s only nine, the same age you were when you came to live with us. And he hasn’t been raised the same way you were back then.”

“Dad, I’m sorry. I guess you’re right. Maybe I am expecting too much.”

“Little brothers can be a pain in the ass,” his dad replied with a grin. “I should know. I used to drive my brother crazy.”

Lex chuckled. “What was he like?”

“A lot like you, actually. A little too serious for his own good sometimes.” He sighed. “Lex, I know it’s hard sometimes, but you really need to try to be more patient with Clark.”

“I’ll try, Dad. I promise.”

“Good. About the Bronze …”

“I get it. I won’t go.”

“That wasn’t what I was going to say. Maybe I was being a little harsh. A boy your age needs to have some fun. Just make sure your homework is done before you go.”

Lex had done most of the homework he’d been given in his morning classes in study hall, so he only had a couple more to do.

Martha came home just as dinner was being put on the table. She put her coat on the hook in the hallway and came into the kitchen, looking tired.

“Mm, dinner smells good,” she said, dropping a kiss on Lex’s head. “You did a great job sweetie.”

“Thanks Mom.” Clark made a face at him. While his parents tried not to favour one son over another, Lex was more his mother’s favourite.

They all sat down to eat, talking about their day over the meal. Martha, enjoyed her job, mostly, although her father never failed to rub in the fact that they’d lost the farm in Smallville, claiming Jonathan had no business sense. 

When Lex had first met Xander and Willow they had asked him why his parents hadn’t used the money he must have inherited from his stepfather’s estate to save the farm. The trouble was, Lionel had done the dirty on Lillian by making sure she got next to nothing. Not even the original amount she had invested in Luthorcorp. 

Lex had his suspicions that Lionel had been lying about how much Luthorcorp was really worth and wanted to research his theory that the company had been struggling financially. Starting the plant in Smallville might have saved not just the town, but the company as well. 

Lex decided to walk to the club after dinner, meeting Willow and Xander on the way.

“What’s got you down in the mouth, Kent?” Xander asked.

“Nothing. My kid brother being a pain in the ass as usual. Lucky for me Dad didn’t buy it for a second.”

“You know that kid worships the ground you walk on.”

“Yeah, right. He just likes annoying me.”

“Aww,” Willow said. “At least you have a brother. You know, someone to talk to and share things with.”

“Ugh, I’d sooner cut off my arm than ‘share’ with Clark,” Lex said. 

“Still, if anything happened to the kid, you’d be there in a heartbeat, right?” Xander said.

Lex smiled. His best friend was right. He would be there in a heartbeat, because that was what family did. 

The usual crew was in the Bronze as they entered. Willow immediately found a table while Xander went looking for Jesse. Some guy with long hair was jumping around on stage pretending he could actually sing. 

Lex went to get drinks for each of them, laughing as Xander pretty much made a fool of himself, dancing around like an idiot. Willow sat quietly watching, trying to pretend she didn’t have a lovesick look on her face. Lex was well aware of her crush on Xander. If only the fool would actually figure it out himself and realise that Willow was more than just a brain. 

Lex had yet to find his ‘Willow’. Not that he wouldn’t go out with her in a flash if she showed any sign of being receptive to the idea. She was sweet and nice and super smart, which he liked. 

Buffy came in and he watched as she got herself a drink then sat next to Willow. Lex decided he was going to give the girl the benefit of the doubt. Whatever trouble she had got into in L.A. he figured she was determined to avoid it here.

The two girls talked for a few minutes, then Buffy seemed to get distracted, looking above them to the mezzanine floor. Lex frowned, seeing an older man standing watching them, his expression suggesting this was the last place he wanted to be. Buffy passed by Lex and found her way upstairs, standing there talking to the man. 

“Hey, what’s up?” Xander asked.

“Nothing. Who’s Buffy talking to?”

Xander looked up and frowned. “Isn’t that the new librarian?”

“New?” Lex cocked an eyebrow at his friend.

Xander shrugged. Him and libraries didn’t mix. He looked over to where Jesse was trying to chat up a blonde. He’d already moved on from Cordelia, who he was forever trying to ask out. The boy had made rejection an art form.

Lex frowned. Willow was talking to a boy who looked strangely out of place. Lex’s clothes weren’t that great, but this guy looked like he’d walked off the pages of an eighties fashion magazine. Almost literally. Not that Lex knew much about fashion, but the clothes definitely looked dated. 

Lex glanced at Xander, wondering if he should follow as the boy took Willow’s hand and led her out of the club. Jesse had disappeared as well. To use a cliché, Lex had a very bad feeling about this. 

He grabbed his friend’s arm and propelled him out the door. They looked around for their friends but couldn’t see any sign of them. Buffy ran out of the alley behind the Bronze.

“Did you guys see Willow?” she asked.

Lex shook his head. “We were just going to look for her.”

“She left with a guy.”

“Well, hey, go Willow …” Xander began until Lex elbowed him in the stomach. 

“What’s wrong?”

“Where would he take her?” Buffy asked urgently.

Xander looked her up and down. “Why? He’s not a vampire is he? Because then you’d have to ‘slay’ him.”

Lex groaned. That explained Xander’s weirdness. Buffy looked taken aback.

“What? Was there a school bulletin or something?”

“It’s true?” Lex asked.

“Yes, now where did they go?”

“Probably the cemetery,” Lex replied, pointing. There was one within walking distance from the Bronze. Then again, pretty much everything was within walking distance.

Buffy ran off. Lex looked at Xander, who shrugged. 

“Come on, idiot!”

They managed to catch up with Buffy, which wasn’t hard. 

“Go back!” she told them.

“We wanna help.”

She rolled her eyes and continued running. Lex saw two people walking into a crypt. Buffy ran in that direction.

They followed, hearing Buffy talking to someone. Lex entered the crypt and saw the blonde chick Jesse had been talking to. Jesse and Willow were on the floor, both looking pale and scared.

“Who are you?”

“You mean someone doesn’t know?” Buffy asked incredulously. “That’s a relief. I’m telling ya, trying to keep a secret identity in this town is a job of work.”

To Lex’s surprise, the blonde attacked Buffy, who blocked. Her face had morphed into something monstrous. Buffy managed to shove the blonde, glancing at Xander and Lex. They got the message, pulling Willow and Jesse up and out of the crypt.

“What about Buffy?” Willow asked.

Good point. Lex hesitated, hearing the bangs and crashes inside the crypt. He had a feeling she could hold her own. 

“We need to get out of here,” he said. 

The four of them began running through the cemetery, seeking safety. Willow gasped. Several more of them were approaching from all sides. They were surrounded!

The blonde from the crypt ran yelling for the others to not let them escape. Lex found himself quickly caught by two of them, the blonde snarling at him.

“Well, look at you,” she said. “You’re a cute one.”

Lex struggled, his heart pounding. She sniffed the air.

“I love the scent of fear,” she quipped. Lex stared as she bent her head, then cried out in surprise.

“Get off my brother!”

Clark!

The nine-year-old was wildly swinging his fists, his punches not even landing. The blonde laughed.

“Look at that. He’s so adorable.”

Lex snorted. Was she in for a surprise, he thought, as Clark shoved her to the ground. She frowned, staring at him in shock.

“Don’t you know you’re not supposed to hit girls?” she asked.

Lex, suddenly finding his arms free as the two others went to help their friend, swung at her.

“You’re not a girl,” he growled. “Clark, run!”

“Oh no you don’t,” Clark cried out as the blonde once again tried to capture Lex. He’d already managed to knock out two others.

Something else came at them from behind and Lex realised it was Buffy. She dropped one of them with a snap kick, pulling on Willow’s hand. Clark moved in a blur, causing one of the male vampires, or whatever they were, to step back in shock.

“What the hell?” Buffy asked, looking at Lex. 

“Never mind that,” he said. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

He pulled Xander, who was dazed, to his feet. Buffy helped Willow, while Clark followed them, walking backwards, watching for more vampires. Jesse was nowhere to be seen.

There were still people on the street who were, thankfully, human. It wasn’t quite nine. Buffy walked with them, clearly wanting to make sure they got safely home. Lex tried to protest, telling her they didn’t need a protector, but she shot him a look. 

“What about Jesse?” Xander asked as they stopped outside his house.

“I’ll have to go back and look for him in the morning,” Buffy said. 

“What if he’s dead?” Xander asked.

“I get the feeling they won’t kill him,” Buffy replied. “Not when they realise who I am.”

“Which is?” Lex asked.

Buffy glanced uneasily at Clark.

“Don’t worry. Clark can keep a secret,” Lex assured her.

“I’m the Slayer,” she said.

“And that means what … exactly?” Lex asked.

“Look, can we talk about this in the morning?” Buffy replied. “Frankly, I need a long hot shower so I can get rid of this slimy dirty feeling.” She shuddered. Lex realised something must have happened in the crypt.

“Fine,” he said.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang try to stop the Harvest and Clark feels left out.

Lex knew they were in for it as soon as he opened the door and saw his parents sitting at the kitchen table. It wasn’t that late, but still, Clark wasn’t allowed out after dark. His brother sent him a guilty look, his head down as he approached.

“Uh, Mom, Dad, before you say anything, or go yelling at Lex, it’s all my fault. I followed him. I’m the one who nearly got us killed.”

Lex frowned at his brother. That was so not what he thought Clark would say. His parents immediately became alarmed.

“What? Killed? What do you mean, Clark? And is that blood?”

“Mom,” Lex began as she fussed with Clark’s clothes.

“Son, why don’t you sit down and tell us what happened.”

Dad was being way too reasonable. He wasn’t yelling, so either they were not that much in trouble or worse, about to be grounded until Clark’s college graduation. Lex sat down at the table. His little brother sat next to him.

“I’m not exactly sure what happened, to be honest. Willow was talking to this guy and went off with him and Buffy thought she was in trouble.”

“Buffy?” Mom asked.

“Oh, she’s the new girl at school.”

“I see.”

“Anyway, we went to help her and found Willow only we were attacked by some kind of gang.”

“They weren’t a gang, they were vam …”

Lex quickly jabbed his brother hard in the ribs and Clark shot him a wounded look, but shut up.

“Hmm, maybe you shouldn’t be going to the Bronze anymore after dark,” his father told him.

“Dad, we’re fine. We weren’t hurt.”

“But Clark …” Mom began, still worrying about what looked like blood on his shirt. 

“Mom, Dad, honest, we’re fine. And about the Bronze. I mean, as long as I stick with the guys I’ll be fine.”

“I still don’t like the idea …” Dad said, then sighed. “But you’re right. As much as it kills me, I can’t protect you from everything.” He looked at Clark. “As for you, young man, you know you’re not allowed out after dark. You had your mother and I scared half to death.”

“Dad …” Clark began.

“Sorry, I know it seems unfair right now, but you’re only nine. And nine year old boys have to obey the rules.”

Clark huffed loudly. “I guess that means I’m grounded?”

“Afraid so. For the next two weeks you are not allowed to see your friends. You will be home straight after school, you will do your chores and your homework and that’s it. No computer games either. Any tv watching will be with us.”

Clark sulked. “So not fair. How come Lex doesn’t get punished?”

“Because Lex didn’t make you climb out your bedroom window and down the tree,” Dad said, winking at Lex. “Off to bed, Clark.”

“But …”

“No. Bed!”

Still sulking, Clark stomped noisily up the stairs. Lex could hear him grumbling. He looked at his dad.

“Uh …”

His father chuckled. “Son, believe me, I do know what it’s like. And I don’t believe for a second you’d encourage Clark to sneak out.”

That was a relief. 

“Do you want to tell us what really happened?” Mom said, just as shrewd.

“Uh, you’re going to think I’m crazy.”

“Try us.”

“They were vampires. At least, that’s what I think they were.”

He decided not to tell them about Buffy being the Slayer. Not that he had any idea what the Slayer was, exactly. Looked like he was going to be doing some research on that. 

He related what had happened, as much as he could. His parents looked worried, of course, but even they knew that they couldn’t keep Lex locked indoors.

“Thanks for telling us, son. To be honest, I’m not sure what to think, but I believe you. Why don’t you get to bed? You still have school in the morning.”

“Uh, actually, there’s something I need to do. Just some research,” he said. “I won’t be long. I promise.”

They got up from the table. His mother kissed his forehead.

“All right, sweetheart. But if you’re not in bed in an hour …”

“I promise, Mom. No more than an hour.”

“Goodnight son. And listen, don’t worry about Clark. He’ll sulk for a couple of days, but …”

“I know Dad.”

His father grinned. “I’m not as gullible as you boys think I am you know. But I think Clark just wants to do everything you do because he looks up to you. You’re his big brother.”

Lex nodded. “Goodnight Dad.”

He grabbed his laptop and plugged in the modem cable, accessing the ‘net. He typed in the word ‘slayer’ but only random pages popped up, then typed in ‘The Slayer’. The first page that popped up seemed interesting so he clicked on the link. 

Thirty minutes later, he shut down the computer.

“Well, that was … interesting,” he said to himself.

Early the next morning he went looking for his friends and found them in the library. Willow he would have expected but Xander?

“Hey, Lex,” Buffy said, sounding a little uncertain. Lex knew he could be standoffish at times, but he was trying. “How are you?”

He frowned at her. He was a little bruised from the fight the night before, but otherwise okay. Buffy was nursing an elbow.

“I went back to the cemetery but I couldn’t find any sign of Jesse, or the vampires,” Buffy told him. 

He nodded. Xander grinned at him.

“Giles was just telling us all about the Slayer.”

“Yeah, I did a little reading last night,” he told his friend. “Interesting stuff.” He glanced at Buffy. “My parents wanted to know what was up, but I didn’t tell them everything. Your secret is safe.”

“What about your kid brother?” Buffy asked.

Lex had cornered his brother early that morning, before they’d gone down for breakfast, and made sure the kid wasn’t going to spill. He supposed it helped knowing his family secret, not that Clark actually knew about his origins just yet. Their parents thought he was too young to understand what it meant. 

Lex had seen the ship, of course. How his parents had managed to keep that thing a secret, especially from Clark, for as long as they had, he had no idea, but he could understand their fears. 

“Don’t worry. I made sure he won’t tell Mom and Dad.”

“Good,” the librarian told him. “Because people here tend to be rather ... er ... blind, when it comes to vampires and … uh, other things.” Which begged the question. How did he know about it? The older man took off his glasses and began wiping them with a handkerchief. “So, uh, Buffy’s the Slayer, don’t tell anyone.”

“So, how do we kill the vampires?” Lex asked Buffy.

“You don’t,” Buffy said. “I do.”

“But Jesse’s our friend,” Xander pointed out.

“And I’m the one who let him get taken.”

Lex frowned at her. “How do you figure that?” he asked. 

Willow and Xander also looked at her. Buffy bit her lip.

“Well …”

“We’d all be dead if you hadn’t shown up,” Lex reminded her.

“Apart from your kid brother. Speaking of who …” she said.

“Whom!” Giles replied, at the same time as Lex. Buffy frowned at both of them.

“Who died and made you grammar police?”

Lex ignored her remark. Willow still looked pale. He sat next to her and nudged her as Buffy talked to the librarian.

“You okay?” he asked.

She looked at him. “I guess. I mean, it’s a little … well, you know …”

“Overwhelming? Look, I did some reading up on this last night and the lore says vampires don’t usually congregate in one place.”

“Except that they do,” Xander pointed out. “In Sunnydale.”

That was true, Lex thought. Maybe they hadn’t lived in the town as long as Willow and Xander but it hadn’t taken him long to notice weird things going on in this town. Like people disappearing. Maybe the adults didn’t talk about it, but he noticed a pattern about that as well. It wasn’t like they didn’t know, or were turning a blind eye to it. They knew, but it was as if they avoided talking about it. 

“So where would the vampires go?” Lex asked, knowing that they had to stop whatever it was.

“The sewers,” Buffy suggested. “They really jam on them. You can get anywhere in the entire town without catching any rays.” She frowned. “But I didn’t see any access around there.”

“There’s an electrical tunnel that runs under the whole town,” Xander commented. Lex nodded in agreement.

“If we had a blueprint of the tunnel system, it might indicate a meeting place …” Giles suggested. “I suppose we could go to the Building Commission.”

Buffy argued they didn’t have time. Lex glanced at Willow. She was slightly better at computers than he was and he wasn’t surprised when she told them she had managed to hack in.

Still, it didn’t seem to help point Buffy in the right direction. Lex was about to offer another suggestion when she frowned, her expression suggesting she was trying to remember something.

“He came at me from behind. The access to the tunnels is in the mausoleum!”

Lex and Xander both got up, determined to help her. Buffy quickly vetoed that. His friend tried to argue a little more, but Buffy refused, leaving quickly. 

Lex barely listened to Willow and Xander talking about the problem and what she should be looking for in terms of weird phenomena. They stopped outside the door of her first class. Willow waved goodbye and went in. Xander turned and looked at him.

Xander bit his lip. “I’m still going,” he said. 

Lex shook his head. “Your funeral man.”

“You scared Lexy?” Xander replied.

“No, I’m just too damned smart to know not to get in over my head. And don’t call me Lexy.”

Xander shook his head and Lex sighed. His friend could be so bull-headed at times. He watched him walk away then began walking down the corridor to his own class.

He passed Mr Flutie in the hallway, mumbling about kids who thought they could just walk out of school. It wasn’t hard to guess that he’d had a run-in with Buffy. 

He had computer science third period. Unfortunately, so did Cordelia and Harmony. He listened to the two of them gossip about Buffy, telling others she was weird. Willow was hard at work on the computer next to him, looking up various strange and unexplained occurrences.

He could tell from his friend’s body language that the gossip annoyed her. Especially because it was about Buffy. Willow clearly liked their new friend. Lex was still going to reserve judgement. 

“Why was she kicked out?” Trent, a guy with long hair who thought he was trendy, asked.

“Because she’s a psycho loony,” Cordelia replied.

“No she’s not,” Willow piped up. 

“What?”

“Cordelia, if I were you, I’d shut my trap,” Lex told the brunette.

“Excuse me, who gave you permission to exist. Freak! I mean, whoever told you that was a good look!” she said, looking pointedly at his head.

“The same expert that told you that dressing like a slut was a good look,” he said, getting up to pick up the documents Willow had printed out. “Come on Will,” he added kindly. “Let’s not waste time with these losers.”

Cordelia ignored him as Harmony proclaimed that the program was done. 

“Okay, so how do we save it?” Cordelia asked.

Willow glanced at Lex and gave him a sly wink. He fought to keep his expression neutral as she told Cordelia exactly what she could do with her program.

“Deliver.”

Lex laughed out loud as soon as they left the lab. There was a scream loud enough to travel all the way along the corridor as Cordelia realised she had deleted her work and would have to start all over again. 

They gave the research to Giles and sat through lunch period going over what Willow had found. Giles kept sighing and shaking his head. Shortly before the period ended, Buffy and Xander came in. Willow frowned, wondering why they hadn’t brought Jesse with them.

“Jesse’s dead,” Xander told them. “They turned him into a vampire.”

Lex shook his head in sympathy. 

“So, Giles,” Buffy began. “Got anything that could make this day worse?”

“The end of the world,” he intoned.

“Knew I could count on you.”

Giles went on to explain that an old vampire had come to Sunnydale, hoping to draw on some of the power from the town’s mystical energy.

“The Spanish who first settled here called it ‘Boca del Infierno’. Roughly translated, ‘Hellmouth’. It’s a sort of portal between this reality and the next.”

Well, that explained a lot of things, Lex thought. Sometimes he wondered if they would have been better off back in Smallville. Weird things happened there, but he didn’t think it was due to a ‘Hellmouth’.

Giles went on, telling them that an earthquake which had swallowed the town had also got the vampire stuck. It was unclear whether the earthquake had been because of the master vampire or whether it had been natural. Lex thought it was the former.  
On this particular night, the Master could draw on mystical energy, and if he fed enough, he could break free of his prison. 

Yeah, this was going to be fun. Not. 

Buffy’s plan was to go in and just start dusting vampires. Which was all very well, but judging from what Lex had seen so far, it wasn’t just a small number of vampires they would be facing. It would be dozens. 

They left the school and began making their way to the Bronze, while Buffy went home to collect her weapons. About a block from the club, Lex saw his brother making a beeline for them.

“Clark, what the hell? You’re supposed to be grounded.”

Clark grinned. “I snuck out.”

“Hey cutie,” Willow said, smiling at him.

“Don’t encourage him, Will. He’s not allowed out. He’s grounded for two weeks.”

“Aw come on, Lex. I never get to do anything!”

Lex rolled his eyes at his brother’s pout.

“That won’t work with me. Go home, Clark.”

“I wanna know what’s going on.”

Giles was frowning at him, clearly wondering why a nine year old kid was trying to tag along. Lex sighed.

“Giles, my brother Clark. Clark, Mr Giles. Now go home.”

“Yes, I quite agree, Lex,” Giles said in that impossibly British way of his Lex was quickly coming to know. “This is no place for a boy your age,” he admonished Clark.

“I’m not a little kid,” Clark pouted. “I’m strong. Wanna see?”

“Clark!” Lex glared at him. “Go. Home!”

Buffy ran up to them, panting a little.

“Mom,” she said with a shrug, hefting the heavy bag. She was clearly strong, but still, walking a few blocks with a heavy weight could still be tiring. She frowned at Clark. “What’s he doing here?”

“Poking his nose in where it’s not wanted,” Lex said. “He’s gonna get me in so much trouble with Mom and Dad.”

There were screams from inside the club. Clark’s eyes widened. 

“What’s that?”

“Trouble,” Buffy said, trying the doors, which were clearly locked. “You guys find another way in and get people out.” She again looked at Clark. “If you’re not gonna go home, stick close to Giles and don’t do anything stupid.”

“I wanna see the vampires!” Clark whined. 

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Okay, listen up. These guys are not people in some kind of Halloween costume, you understand me? This is not some kind of fairy tale. These are monsters and they will kill you. If I can’t make you go home, I …”

“I’m not a little kid,” Clark sulked. “I’m almost ten.”

Buffy growled, then handed them her bag. She left to find her own way in, while they went to the back. Lex looked inside the bag. There was holy water, stakes and a couple of wooden crosses.

Giles and Xander managed to break the lock on the back door and they entered the club. They quickly found the vampire who was supposed to be the vessel, who seemed to be holding court. Lex handed out the jars of holy water and stakes. Clark tried to grab a stake, but Lex shook his head. Again his brother pouted.

“Clark, stay there and be quiet,” Lex told him, pushing him out toward the back door.

“I don’t want to.”

Goddamn little shit, Lex thought. He glared at his little brother.

“Clark, for the last time, stay here or go the fuck home!”

Clark’s eyes widened. “You said the f-word. I’m so gonna tell Mom and she’s gonna …”

“Yeah? What do you think Dad’s gonna do when he finds out you snuck out. Again!”

Clark bit his lip, then huddled in the corner as he’d been told to do. Lex joined the others. Willow was already struggling with the blonde girl. Lex grabbed a jar of holy water and splashed it in her face. She screamed, her hands covering her face and what appeared to be steam rose from underneath. 

He shrugged and grinned at Willow. “Well, that worked.”

“Buffy,” she said. 

Buffy was fighting the big guy, who had to be at least six four. He was taller and bigger even than Jonathan, which was saying a lot. 

Lex looked around and saw Giles struggling with another vampire and he and Willow went to help the librarian. Clark cried out and Lex whirled. A vampire was stalking his little brother. Before Lex could go to his brother’s aid, Clark managed to shove the vampire back. Startled, the vampire stumbled. Lex grabbed a stake and tackled the monster, stabbing it in the back. The creature turned and laughed at him.

“You missed!” he taunted.

Clark jumped on the thing’s back and Lex this time managed to get its heart. It dissolved in a shower of dust.

There was the sound of something smashing and Lex watched in amazement as the big dumb vampire started screaming. Buffy staked it and said something Lex didn’t catch.

The remaining vamps clearly knew it was all over and ran from the club. Willow helped Giles to his feet.

“Well, that was bracing,” the Englishman commented.

Buffy grinned at them. 

“So, we stopped the Harvest?” Willow asked.

“Looks like,” Buffy said. 

“I better get Clark home before my parents have a conniption,” Lex said.

“Perhaps I should intervene on your behalf?” Giles asked.

“What would you say?” Lex returned. “I mean, my Dad’s gonna be mad anyway.”

Clark looked guilty. “I just wanted to see what you were doing, Lex,” he said.

Lex wrapped an arm around his brother’s shoulders.

“I know, kid, but you still broke the rules.”

“It would be best if you not say anything about tonight,” Giles told him. 

“I wasn’t planning on it,” Lex told him, although he would most likely be giving his parents a watered—down version of events. After all, they had an alien in their midst. Vampires wouldn’t be too much of a stretch. Not that Giles and the others knew that. 

As he predicted, his dad wasn’t too happy.

“Clark, we expressly forbid you to go out and you disobeyed again. Go to your room.”

“But Dad …”

“No! Get upstairs. Now!”

Lex bit his lip as he looked at his parents.

“I told him to go but he wouldn’t listen.”

Dad sighed. “I know son. Look, I know we’ve had our clashes now and then, but you’re a good kid. If I don’t say that enough, I’m sorry. I know you’re not doing anything to encourage him, but …”

“What your dad is trying to say is that we know you can’t stop Clark any more than we can, and we appreciate all you do to keep him out of trouble.”

“So what do I do? The kid follows me everywhere.”

His father wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “Son, if I had the answer to that, I’d probably be a millionaire.”

Lex laughed. At least his parents weren’t mad at him. Clark wasn’t going to stop trying to follow him and that was something he had to put up with. 

Buffy and the others, however, weren’t so sure when he met with them the next day.

“He’s a little kid, Lex,” Buffy said.

“I know that, but he’s strong. Stronger than me, actually.”

She frowned at him. “How is that possible?”

“You’re just going to have to trust me on this, okay?”

“Fine, but there’s no way I’m letting him follow me out slaying.”

“No one’s saying you have to,” Lex told her. “But Clark has a curious nature and the more we tell him no, the more he’s going to fight it. I mean, you think I like having my kid brother tag along? The kid’s a pain in the ass.”

“Still, you make a very good point, Lex,” Giles said. “From what I’ve seen so far, your brother isn’t going to let us deter him.”

“Great,” Buffy sighed. “So now I’m a babysitter as well as a Slayer. Welcome to the Hellmouth.”


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clark's p.o.v - little Clark has some secrets of his own, and a new friend.

Clark was sitting on the bench by the playground at Sunnydale Elementary school. His parents, and even Lex, had nagged him about being careful when playing with other kids and it was so much an annoyance that he just couldn’t be bothered with it so he often sat alone reading.

He had borrowed one of Lex’s books, although his brother would probably murder him if he found out that Clark had taken it. He always said that Clark was too little to read his books, especially the ones with big words in it. Screw that, he thought. He wasn’t too little. He could read fast and bigger books than a lot of the kids his age. 

His parents and his brother all thought he was so dumb. Like he cared. It was all, don’t do this, Clark, don’t go out after dark, Clark. Okay, maybe they kind of had a point since they now knew there were vampires and all sorts of monsters that went after little kids. Like the other day, he’d overheard Lex talking with Willow and Xander about Buffy and some girl named Amy. Apparently Amy’s mom had been a witch or something and she’d put the whammy on Buffy because she wanted to be a cheerleader. 

Buffy was nice, if a little weird, but kind of cool, for a girl. Even if she did treat him like a little kid too. 

Clark hated being treated like a little kid. Okay, so he was nine, but he’d be ten in a couple months. Six weeks, two days, three hours and thirty-two seconds. Thirty seconds. If he broke it down like that, it didn’t seem like so long. Besides, he knew a lot of little kids who couldn’t do what he could, like run fast and lift things that were way heavier than him. Look what Buffy could do, he thought. She was strong too. Maybe he was a Slayer like her.

No, that couldn’t be right, he thought. Mr Giles had said the Slayer could only be a girl. He didn’t know why, just that it was something that was passed down. Whatever, Clark shrugged. Besides, there were other things that didn’t add up.

The thud of something being dumped on the bench next to him had him looking up.

“Hey Smallville!”

Clark frowned at Lois as she sat down next to the bag she’d dumped. From the first day they’d met, she’d called him Smallville. He never should have told her that was where he had lived up until he was six. She had thought it was hilarious and had nicknamed him Smallville from then on. 

He kind of liked Lois, only he was never going to tell her that. She was older than him, by about nine months, but because her dad moved around a lot, she had got left behind one year. 

Lois nudged him.

“You’re being stupid again.”

“Am not,” he told her.

“Are too! You’re all broody and stuff.”

“Am not!”

“Fine. Whatever! But you are!”

“You’re stupid!”

She grabbed his book from him. “Whatcha reading?”

“Nothin’. Give it back.”

“Don’t wanna.”

“Give it back, stupid. It’s my brother’s book.”

“So why are you reading it? Isn’t your brother like way smarter than you?”

“Is not.”

“Is too! He like reads all these books with big words in them. You’re just a little kid.”

“Am not!”

“Are too!”

“Am not!”

“You are, and you’re stupid.”

“Shut up! You don’t know! You’re just a girl. You don’t know anything!”

Lois poked her tongue out at him and threw the book back at him.

“I’m not a girl!”

“You’re rude!” Clark picked up the book where it had landed on the ground. There was a dirty mark on it from where it had landed in a puddle. It had rained overnight. “Look what you did,” he accused. “Lex is gonna be mad at you.”

“No he won’t,” she said smugly. “He’ll be mad at you for stealing his book.”

He glared at her and grabbed his bag from the bench, stuffing the book inside and starting to move away. Lois stood there for a moment, pouting, then chased after him.

“Wait up,” she said. 

He tried to ignore her, but Lois was pretty hard to ignore. She was loud and rude and was pretty much the only girl around who would talk to him. 

“I’m sorry,” she said. “If the book’s bad, I’ll buy you a new one. I mean, I might have to save my allowance for about a month, but …”

Clark shrugged. “I guess.”

“So, what are you doing after school? I mean, my dad’s got these meetings and stuff and he won’t be home, so it’s just me.”

“I can’t,” he told her. “I have to go to Lex’s school and study in the library. Mom and Dad are working late and Lex has stuff at school.”

“You can’t do anything?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I kinda got grounded. For a whole month. Which is like, so unfair!” he wailed.

“How come you got grounded?”

“I snuck out.”

Lois snickered. “Smallville, the rebel.”

“Shut up.”

“So, can I go with you? After school, I mean. It’s not like I got anyone at home waiting.”

Clark considered this for a moment. He was sure Lex would be having some kind of meeting with Buffy and the others and it was all supposed to be secret and stuff. Still, he didn’t think Lois would blab.

“Okay, but you gotta promise you don’t tell your dad about stuff.”

“What stuff?” she asked, frowning.

“Just stuff.”

“I can’t promise if I don’t know what it is,” she told him.

He rolled his eyes at her. “Just promise. I don’t want Lex to get mad. More mad.”

“Okay. Promise. Spit and shake?”

He screwed up his nose. “Eww, no!”

The bell rang signalling the end of lunch and they went in to class. Lois was in the same class as Clark, although she tended not to pay attention. It was a long, boring afternoon and he couldn’t wait until school was over. Not just for the day, but for summer. 

Lois caught up with him as he started walking to the high school. 

“So, what’s the big secret?” she asked.

“I can’t tell you,” he said. “Anyway, you promised.”

“You’re mean,” she pouted. 

Clark just sighed and shook his head. The high school was a few blocks away from the elementary school, which he thought was kind of stupid, but then he supposed the high schoolers didn’t want to be bothered with little kids. 

He took a shortcut across the cemetery, remembering the night he’d snuck out nearly three weeks earlier and found Lex fighting with vampires in the cemetery. That had been scary, but kind of cool at the same time.

“Ugh, I hate cemeteries,” Lois complained.

“You didn’t have to come with me,” he said.

“Well, what else was I gonna do?” she replied.

“Why do you hate cemeteries?” he asked.

“Cause of my mom. She died when I was six.”

“Oh. Lex’s real mom died when he was nine. That’s when he came to live with us.”

“What about his real dad?” Lois asked, staring at him curiously.

“Um, it’s kind of complicated. See, my dad’s big brother met Lex’s mom first but he died in an accident or something and didn’t know that he was gonna be a dad, so his mom married this other guy and he died, and then she found out she was dying so she asked my dad to adopt Lex.”

“Oh.”

“I’m adopted too,” he said.

“I knew that.”

He frowned at her and she shrugged. 

“Joey told me.”

Clark scowled. Joey Knowles had called him a loser because he was adopted. Joey was one of the bigger kids and liked to bully the little ones. He wasn’t scared of the bully, especially not now he’d faced vampires.

“Do you ever think about finding your real parents?”

Clark had thought about it. He’d got a look at his birth certificate and his adoption certificate but that hadn’t told him anything about who his real parents were, or where he’d come from, since the fields for birth parents just said ‘unknown’. His parents had told him they’d adopted him through an agency, but didn’t have any records.

What they didn’t know was that he was sure he was from somewhere else. They’d always warned him not to go down to the basement, especially alone, but he’d snuck down there when they’d been at work and Lex had been doing his homework in his room with Willow and Xander. This was before Buffy had come to live in Sunnydale. 

Knowing Lex was too busy to care what he was up to, he had gone down to the basement and there had been this thing … whatever it was it was huge. His dad had a big rubber sheet over it, but Clark had managed to get it off and looked at what was underneath. To him it looked like some kind of spaceship, like in the comics Lex used to read when he was a kid. 

He’d once had fantasies, especially when his brother was being his most annoying, that Lex came from space or something, but when he had looked at the spaceship and saw the actual size, he knew it wasn’t Lex. Something had nagged at the back of his mind, telling him this was why he could run fast and lift things ten times heavier than his own weight. 

“Well, what do we got here?”

Clark glared at the big jock blocking their way across the football field. He could see the cheerleaders by the bleachers working on their cheers. That girl that always annoyed Lex was working with them.

“Look at the little kiddies,” another jock said. “Where are you off to, kiddies?”

“The library,” Clark said in a small voice, hefting his bag on his shoulder. He’d learned that sometimes it was better to pretend to be weaker rather than face someone bigger than you. Lex had told him he had to be careful not to show people he was stronger than them.

“Yeah? Well maybe we think you should go home like good little kiddies.”

“I can’t,” Clark told the two boys. “My mom and dad told me I have to come here to stay with my brother.”

“Who’s your brother, squirt?”

“Lex.”

The blonde jock looked at his darker haired friend and shrugged.

“Bald kid. Soph.”

“Oh yeah, he hangs around with that new girl. What’s her name? Muffy?”

“It’s Buffy,” Clark corrected, almost growling at the older boys, who laughed at him.

“Yeah, Buffy. She’s that weird girl. Hangs out with that nerdy girl, Rosenberg.”

“Willow’s not a nerd!” Clark defended his friend. “She’s nice and she’s my friend and you leave her alone.” He glanced at Lois, who was glaring at the two boys, but keeping silent.  
Again the older boys laughed. 

“Look at that. Little boy’s got a crush on the nerd.”

Clark found himself being poked by the older boy. Lois stepped up.

“Leave him alone,” she said.

“Or you’ll do what, little girl?”

“I know karate, and stuff,” she told him. “You don’t wanna mess with me.”

“Yeah? Well, I’m about a foot taller than you little girl.”

He poked Clark again. Lois was turning red, not with embarrassment, Clark saw, but with anger. She grabbed the boy’s arm and twisted it, turning and kicking him hard in the butt, knocking him off balance so he fell against the other guy. Clark turned and stared at her admiringly.

“Wow!”

Lois grinned at him, her long dark hair flying.

“Jocks,” she said. She grabbed his hand. “C’mon.”

They ran to the bleachers, past the cheerleaders, who had stopped to watch. The girls were laughing at the jocks, calling out insults.

Lois kept holding his hand as they entered the main building, looking for the library. Clark wasn’t sure which way to go. The high school was much bigger and a whole different layout to the grade school.

“Can I help you kids?”

They turned and stared at the man. He had a friendly manner, although he was dressed like someone in charge, wearing a dark blazer and white shirt with dressy-type pants, or what Clark's dad would call dressy pants.

“We’re trying to find the library,” Lois said, biting her bottom lip uncertainly. “Um, his brother said to meet him here.”

“Who is your brother young man?”

“Lex.”

The man nodded knowingly. “You must be Clark,” he said, smiling. “I’ve talked to your parents. I’m Mr Flutie, the school principal. Come along then, I’ll show you to the library.”

Clark followed the principal, looking around, trying to get his bearings. The man opened some double doors, holding them open.

“Ah, Mr Giles, I found these two lost lambs in the corridor.”

Mr Giles came to the door, one hand holding the door open as if in a hurry to get rid of the other man.

“Oh, yes, Mr Flutie. Thank you. Hello Clark. And …”

Clark was acutely conscious of the way both the librarian and Buffy were staring at him, wondering what he was doing there. Lex sighed and rolled his eyes. 

“Sorry. Mom and Dad told him to come here after school. Thanks Mr Flutie.”

Clark watched the principal leave, shuffling his feet uncomfortably. 

“Um, so this is Lois.”

“What’s she doing here, Clark?” his brother asked.

“Well, her dad had meetings and she didn’t have anyone else at home, so I said she could come. We won’t be any trouble. Honest.”

Giles looked mildly annoyed.

“Well, yes. Why don’t you two sit here and read,” he told them, pulling chairs out of a neighbouring table.

“Giles!” Buffy said in protest.

“We won’t listen!” Clark told her as he sat down. The table was far enough away from the others that he probably couldn’t hear them if they talked in low voices. He took out his book and glanced at Lois, who shrugged and took out a book of her own.

***

Lex sighed, glancing once more at his brother before turning back to the conversation. Giles had returned to the table where he had been going through his books and Watchers’ diaries. Lex still wasn’t sure what Giles did as a Watcher, but it wasn’t important.

As he checked again on his brother, he saw Clark had one of his own books in his hands. It looked like his brother had been stealing from his bookcase again. And he’d somehow got the book dirty. There were mud splatters on it. He was going to have to have words with Clark.

“Lex, you with us?”

He looked at his best friend, then nodded. “Sorry. What were you saying, Giles?”

“I was just saying that there appears to be some kind of prophecy.”

“Gee, another one?” Buffy asked.

“Well, this one happens to be very dangerous.” He picked up a heavy volume. “The writings of the Order of Aurelius, who prophesied that the brethren of his order would bring the Anointed One.”

Willow frowned. “Who’s that?”

“The writings aren’t clear, but I suppose he’s a warrior. It says he will rise from the ashes of the Five on the evening of the thousandth day after the Advent of Septus.”

“So,” Buffy shrugged. “We’ll be ready whenever that is.”

“It’s tonight.”

Buffy glanced at Giles, then at Willow as she thought it over. Lex realised something was up as a range of emotions crossed her face.

“Not tonight. No. Tonight bad.”

Giles frowned at her. “Why is tonight bad?”

“Uh, cause I have a date,” she said, grimacing.

Lex looked at her. Xander immediately looked jealous, but then his crush on Buffy was fairly obvious, except of course to Buffy herself.

The English librarian didn’t look happy.

“Buffy, you have a sacred duty. You do not have time for … for …”

“A life?”

“Yes, precisely! No, not a …”

Lex glanced at Giles, then shrugged. He’d read enough comics to know that the hero had a duty first and a life second. It was the price of being blessed with super powers. Or cursed, he guessed would be Buffy’s perspective.


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clark and Lex encounter a vampire while seeing Lois home. Clark is acting weird.

Lex started lecturing on the way home.

“Now you both understand you cannot repeat what you might have heard in the library.”

Clark rolled his eyes at his brother. “We know! Geez, Lex. Don’t have a cow!”

Lex cocked an eyebrow at him. “Don’t have a cow? Where did you learn that?”

“The Simpsons, where else?” Lois interjected, grinning. 

It was Lex’s turn to roll his eyes. Clark grinned at him. Lex thought the humour on the show was beneath him. Then again, his brother didn’t have much of a sense of humour. 

They walked Lois to the bus stop so she could catch the bus to the army housing. She had called her father earlier and told him she would be with a friend and could catch the city bus.

“We should wait with her,” Lex told him, glancing uneasily around. 

Clark bit his lip. On the one hand, his brother was right to feel a little nervous, since it was getting dark. On the other, Clark didn’t want Lois to think he actually liked her or anything. She was a girl. He didn’t want anyone thinking he liked girls. 

“You don’t have to stay,” Lois told them. “I’m a big girl.”

Lex shook his head. “No, we’re going to stay until you get on that bus.”

“Fine,” she said with a heavy sigh. “Dumb boys,” Clark heard her muttering. 

It was clear they were going to be waiting a little while for the bus. Lois quickly grew bored and restless. She punched Clark in the shoulder.

“Tag! You’re it!”

He chased her around the bench they’d been sitting on, holding back on his speed. Lex quickly grew irritated with them. 

“Stop it!” he said, practically growling.

Clark ignored his brother, continuing to play the game with Lois. He could hear his brother’s huffs of annoyance. 

“Quit it!” Lex called as they circled the bench, giggling.

He heard another growl and thought at first it was coming from his brother, until he realised this sounded more like a wild animal. Clark looked around and froze, realising a vampire was watching them. The sun had set while they’d been playing.

Lois quickly noticed he had stopped laughing and looked toward him, never noticing the vampire behind her.

“C’mon Smallville,” she said.

Clark glanced uneasily at his brother, who had turned to look at him, frowning. Lex got to his feet, turning around.

“Shit!” he said. Clark bit his lip. Their parents would normally scold them if they swore, but in this case, he didn’t think it mattered much, since they weren’t around to hear.

“Get behind me!” Lex ordered, as if that would do any good. 

Lois stared at him, dumbfounded, having not seen the vampire.

“What’re you …”

In a split second, Clark saw the vampire about to attack and he moved with speed to get in between the vampire and Lois. Startled, the girl stared, clearly wondering how he’d managed to move so fast. The vampire was also surprised to discover a little kid was able to move that fast. 

The vampire had even more of a surprise as it attacked, only to find Clark could deflect its attack easily. He hit it as he’d seen Buffy do once or twice. While he didn’t manage to knock it out, the vampire was clearly stunned, falling back. 

“Clark!” Lex called. 

The vampire hissed at him and slunk back into the bushes as the bus arrived. The brothers made sure Lois got on it. She stood on the step, staring at them.

“What was that?” she asked. 

“Never you mind,” Lex told her. “Just go home.”

“But … I …”

“We will talk about this tomorrow,” Lex replied. “Go home, Lois. I’m sure your father will be worrying about you.”

She sniffed, clearly pretending she wasn’t hurt by her father’s indifference, but Clark could tell she was covering up her real feelings.

“He doesn’t care,” she said. 

“Well, I do,” Lex told her, sounding older than his sixteen years. 

Clark turned his head to check for the vampire as the bus started to leave. His brother turned to look at him, glancing anxiously toward the bushes.

“I think it’s gone,” he said.

“It’ll come back,” Clark told him, sure he was right. 

“Probably. Let’s go, Clark. Mom and Dad will start to worry if we’re not home soon.”

They began walking together. The house was about half a mile from the bus stop, but Lex was clearly still uneasy as he kept looking around. 

“I could … ya know … use my speed,” he said.

“You know Mom and Dad told you not to use your powers,” his brother replied. “Especially not where someone could see. I mean, now we’re going to have to figure out how to explain what happened to Lois.”

“Adrenaline?” Clark joked. He’d read the word in one of Lex’s books and had figured out what it meant. His brother rolled his eyes, as he usually did when Clark tried to show how smart he really was. It wasn’t that Lex thought he was dumb, but being older, thought he was more superior. 

“That’s not funny, Clark,” Lex said. 

“C’mon, don’t you read all those stories about how someone gets trapped under a car or something and they’re able to lift it up?”

“You’re reading it wrong and anyway, that’s stuff for like X-Styles or something,” Lex said. 

Clark grinned. X-Styles was this television show which had reporters going all over the globe for stories about the weird and unexplained. It was crap television, according to Lex, who had proclaimed when he grew up he was going to be a scientist so he could disprove such theories. 

Mind you, Clark thought, there had been a couple of episodes looking at whether aliens existed and if what was in the cellar was any evidence, the show was right on point.

“So you don’t think any of the stuff they show is true?” he asked. “Even the stuff about aliens?”

Lex shot him an odd look. “Well, of course it’s not true, Clark. Where would you get that idea?”

Clark started to open his mouth, then shut it. Part of him wanted to confront his family about the thing in the basement, but another part of him wasn’t sure he wanted to know the truth. Especially the part about him being an alien. Like, was he the only one? Why wasn’t he in a lab or something? What happened to his real parents? Did they come with him and if so, where were they? If not, why not? Did he do something bad? 

Lex grasped his arm and pushed him a little.

“Come on, Clark. Quit dawdling.”

With a shrug, Clark sped up his pace to keep up with his brother as they quickly walked the last quarter mile to their house. 

Fortunately, they managed to get home without incident. Their mother was in the kitchen, cooking dinner, but came out when she heard the door slam.

“Why are you boys so late?” she asked.

“Sorry Mom,” Lex replied. “We had a … I mean, we were working in the school library. Clark’s friend had to catch a bus home so we figured we’d wait with her, just to make sure she got on okay.”

“Oh, I see,” she said, kissing Lex’s temple. Clark smirked as his brother squirmed slightly. “Well, that was nice of you, honey. So, who is this girl?”

“Nobody,” Clark said. “She’s Lois. Her dad works at the army base just outside of town.”

“The army?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, he’s a Colonel, or something.”

His mother nodded. “I see. Well, dinner’s almost ready boys. Why don’t you take your bags upstairs and wash up?”

“Okay Mom.”

At least the rest of the night was uneventful, although Clark had to squirm when his mother started asking him questions about Lois.

“She’s just a girl,” he said.

His parents exchanged knowing looks and he huffed.

“Eugh, nooo! She’s a girl!”

“That’s usually how they start,” his father replied with a grin. 

Clark rolled his eyes and went back to eating his apple pie. Lex kicked him under the table and offered him a grin. 

“She calls him Smallville,” Lex told their parents.

“Shut up, Lex,” Clark quickly interjected.

“Awww, is poor widdle Clarkie embarrassed because he likes a girl?” Lex teased. 

“Shut … up!” Clark returned, kicking Lex back, hard enough to make his brother wince.

“Clark, don’t kick your brother,” his dad scolded.

“He started it!” 

“Lex, don’t tease your brother,” Dad said, but it had no bite to it considering he was smiling. 

Clark huffed and got up, leaving his plate on the table. 

“I’m gonna go watch tv,” he said.

“Uh uh, not until you’ve cleared the table young man,” his mother said.

“But Moom! The Simpsons are on!”

“Table!” she said gesturing toward the dishes. 

Pouting, Clark set to work clearing the table, poking his tongue out at his brother, who was smirking at him. 

“Lex, why don’t you help your brother and load the dishwasher?” their dad said. 

It was Clark’s turn to smirk as Lex protested.

“I have homework!” he said.

“I thought you would have done it in the library after school?” Dad said.

Ha ha, Clark thought. Explain your way out of this one, smarty pants!

“I got most of it done,” Lex replied. 

Clark snorted to himself. While their parents knew about the vampires and stuff, they weren’t so sure about letting Lex work with Buffy and the others. They wouldn’t be all that happy to learn that Lex hadn’t gone to the library to do homework, but to have a secret meeting of the gang. Willow called them Slayerettes, or something. Clark thought the Scooby Gang might be better, although it had him wondering, if Willow and Buffy were Valma and Daphne and Lex was Fred, did that make Xander the Shaggy character? Where did that leave him? He couldn’t be Scooby, since he wasn’t a dog. Then again, he wasn’t exactly human either.

Huh, he thought. 

Clark went out to watch television, thankful that he’d only missed maybe five minutes of the episode. He hadn’t missed much really, since it was the same old thing. Homer drinking or yelling at Bart, Lisa being annoyingly genius-like and the usual jerks around Springfield.

He settled down on the couch, tuning out the sounds around him.

“Hey kid, whatcha watching?”

Xander sat down next to him.

“The Simpsons,” he said with a shrug.

“Oh. Cool.” Xander became absorbed in the episode, silent until the final credits. Clark glanced at the teenager, who shrugged. “Willow and Lex are doing some kind of project for school.”

“Is Buffy here?”

“Naw, she’s supposed to be going on a date, with that Owen guy.” The older boy made a face. 

“Do you like her or something?”

“Buffy?” He raised an eyebrow. “I guess. So, what about you and whatshername?”

“Lois. And she’s a girl.”

“Well, so’s Buffy.” Xander nudged him. “C’mon, you can tell me.”

“Ewww, no!”

“Whatever.”

They turned back to the television. It was some game show, which Clark barely paid any attention to. 

“So you guys and Buffy, are you like a gang or something?”

“I guess. We’re like … the Scoobies.”

Clark bit his lip. “So, if you and Lex are like Fred and Shaggy, and Will and Buffy are like Valma and Daphne, who’s Scooby?”

Xander reached over and ruffled his hair.

“Well, I guess that would be you, squirt.”

Clark made a face at him. “I’m not a squirt.”

“Yeah, y’are. You’re a little kid,” he replied, ruffling Clark’s hair again.

“Quit it,” he said, trying to pull away. He looked at his brother’s best friend. “So, why do I get to be Scooby?”

“Why not?” Xander said with a shrug. 

“But I’m not a dog.”

“We’re not in a cartoon either. What’s eating you, kid?”

“Nothin’, I just … well, Scooby’s a dog and, if I’m Scooby in the gang that means I’m not …” He hesitated. Saying the word would just make it real. 

“Not what, squirt?”

“Not human,” he said hollowly.

Xander frowned at him. “Of course you’re human. Don’t be dumb, Clark.”

“But I’m not. I’m not!” he said, getting up. “Why don’t you ask my mom and dad. They know. Ask them what’s in the basement.” He ran out of the room and up the stairs, slamming the door to his bedroom.

***

Lex was working with Willow on an experiment for chem class in the basement. They were busy watching a chemical reaction at work and taking notes when Xander came down.

“Your little brother’s weird, man,” he said.

Lex frowned at his best friend through the safety glasses he wore.

“What do you mean?”

Xander shrugged. “I dunno. He started talking about Scooby Doo and how he wasn’t human and to ask your mom and dad what’s down here. Like I said, weird.”

Lex bit his lip, glancing uneasily at the corner of the basement where the ship sat underneath a rubber sheet. 

“Houston, we have a problem,” he said under his breath.


	6. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lex tells his parents and they decide to talk to Clark.

Lex waited until his friends left an hour later. Willow had noticed his distraction but hadn’t said anything. She’d always been good like that, Lex thought. She was very astute, but not always that observant, since she tended to be in a world of her own, as most geniuses were. Still, when she did notice something was up, or at least where he was concerned, she tended to wait until he was ready to talk about it. 

It was one of the many things he had in common with the redhead. The accident which had left him bald had made him reticent and if he had to admit it, more than a little insecure about his looks. Willow was the same. She’d had a crush on Xander for forever, but had never had the courage to tell him about it. Xander was a good guy, but he could be so dense sometimes. 

Clark must have gone to bed, as there hadn’t been a peep out of him since Xander had come down to the basement. Lex made sure Clark’s bedroom door was closed before going back downstairs to the dining room where his parents were working on what looked like the family accounts.

“Hey son,” his father smiled. “Want some hot cocoa?”

Lex nodded. “Sure.” He watched as Dad got up to head for the kitchen. He sat down at the table. “Um, I need to talk to you guys about something.”

Mom frowned slightly, turning in her chair to look at him.

“What’s wrong, sweetie? Is it school?”

“No, it’s … nothing like that. It’s Clark. I think he knows about the … you know what,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “You know, in the basement.”

His parents exchanged worried looks. Dad took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. 

“I think this calls for something stronger than cocoa,” he said. He went out, leaving Lex to fidget under his mother’s searching gaze. 

“Honey, how do you know Clark knows about the ship?”

“Something he said to Xander tonight. Something about not being human.”

Comprehension dawned in her expression. They both fell silent.

Lex had been told about the ship and Clark’s arrival a few months after they’d both been adopted. 

He had spent two weeks in the hospital following the meteor shower, his birth mother practically camped at his bedside. 

A week after he had got out of hospital, Lillian had told him they would be having guests at the mansion in Metropolis. Lex had been curious as to who the visitors were and had waited in his bedroom, watching anxiously from his window as the new truck pulled up in the driveway and a couple got out. He had frowned at the blond man and his wife, a pretty redhead, who had a little boy in her arms. 

“Lex? Will you come down please?”

He’d dutifully gone down to meet Jonathan and Martha, and their son, Clark. The little boy had seemed fascinated with him, staring at his head, which Lex refused to cover with a woollen cap his mother had given him. 

He had been stunned to learn his mother was dying and equally shocked to learn Jonathan was his uncle. 

Lillian had been keen to encourage him to spend time with the Kents and get to know his new family. As difficult as the situation was, Lex began to enjoy having a little brother, even if Clark was a little odd. For the first few months, Clark didn’t speak English, but Lex never questioned it.

It wasn’t until shortly after his mother died and Lex went to live with the family full-time that he understood. He’d been playing a game with Clark, chasing him into the barn, when he’d somehow managed to topple the heavy tool bench. Startled, Lex had stood frozen to the spot as the bench fell toward him.

Next thing he knew, Clark was beside him, his little arms reaching up to keep the bench from completely toppling. Lex stared and reached out, wondering how Clark was holding it up and realised it weighed at least two hundred pounds. 

Of course, he’d questioned it, refusing to be dissuaded and they’d told him the truth, showing him the ship in the storm cellar. 

After they’d moved to Sunnydale, they’d decided to keep the ship in the basement, covered with a heavy canvas. Lex had been warned never to tell anyone the truth about Clark, and knowing his parents’ worries about the possibility of someone trying to take his little brother away, Lex had agreed. 

Now, of course, they had new concerns.

Dad came back in with a cup of hot chocolate for Lex and what he figured was coffee with a dash of brandy for the adults.

“All right, son, why don’t you start at the beginning?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know much, just that Xander came in telling me Clark was acting weird, saying he wasn’t human and to ask you about what was down in the basement. I don’t know how it came about.”

“Sweetie, are you sure something didn’t happen at school?”

“No. I mean, yeah, we were sort of having a … club meeting and Clark and Lois were supposed to be doing their homework, but, well I guess they were listening. And a vampire attacked us while we were waiting for Lois’ bus, but …” He frowned. “Clark did sort of mention aliens.”

His dad frowned. “I think it’s safe to say Clark’s known about it for a while. We have to tell him, Martha.”

“Tell me what?”

They looked around. Clark stood in the doorway, looking sleepy-eyed.

“Honey, we thought you were asleep,” Mom said.

“I was, but then I heard you guys talking.”

Mom held out her hand and Clark let her pull him onto her lap, scrunching up his face a little. He was still a little kid, but thought he was too old for such displays of affection.

“Clark, is there something you want to ask us?” Dad said.

“Like what?”

Lex looked at his parents, realising they had no idea how to broach the subject.

“We know you know about the ship, squirt.” His dad shifted in his seat, looking decidedly uncomfortable with this, but Lex shot him a look. 

“So it’s really a spaceship?” Clark asked, squirming as Mom stroked his head.

“It’s how you came into our world, son,” Dad said gently. “We were going to wait until you were older, but …” He looked at Mom. “I guess now is as good a time as any.”

“So where did I come from?” Clark asked.

“We don’t really know, sweetie. All we do know is that you landed in your ship the day of the meteor shower and came to live with us.”

“But maybe I’ve got another mom and dad,” Clark said.

Lex saw his parents wince slightly at Clark’s unintentional gaffe. It was natural, at least from what he had read, for any adopted child to want to know their true heritage, but it didn’t make it any less painful for the adoptive parents. 

“We don’t know, son,” Dad told him. “I wish we had answers for you, but we don’t.”

“Can we look at the ship?” Clark asked. “I want to see.”

“It’s late and you both have school in the morning.”

“But …” Clark pouted. 

“Mom’s right, squirt,” Lex said gently. “How about this weekend we work on it together? I could get out my chemistry set and we could do some experiments on the metal.”

His brother grinned at him. “Yeah, that’ll be cool, Lex.” He frowned. “Hey, does Willow know?”

Lex shook his head. “No. Nor do Xander and Buffy. You can’t tell anyone, Clark. Not even your little friend Lois.”

“How come?”

“Because the government might try to take you away,” Dad said. 

“Oh.” Clark nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, that would be bad.” He got up. “Guess I should go back to bed.”

Mom kissed him goodnight. “Sleep well, sweetie.”

Lex let himself be kissed as well, walking with his little brother up the stairs. He paused at Clark’s bedroom door.

“Sleep tight, squirt,” he said.

“Stop calling me squirt,” Clark complained. 

“Why?” Lex replied with a shrug. “You are a squirt.”

Next morning at school, he heard Buffy talking about her non-date.

“What was I supposed to do? Say to Owen, ‘Sorry I was late, I was sitting in a cemetery with the librarian waiting for a vampire to rise so I could prevent an evil prophecy from coming to pass?’

Xander gestured with his hands as if he was weighing his options. 

“Or flat tyre?”

Lex looked at them. “What are you guys talking about?” he asked.

“Only the death of my social life,” Buffy replied. She glanced over at two boys passing as she walked. “Yeah, that’s right. Check out the dateless loser.”

Lex knew those guys. He’d heard them talking about Buffy and how they’d like to slam her up against the locker.

“I don’t think you’re a dateless loser,” he told her.

Xander smacked him on the arm. Lex frowned at his friend. “What?” Xander shot him a ‘shut up now’ look. His best friend had made his feelings about the blonde vampire slayer very clear and didn’t appreciate anyone else’s attempts to cheer her up. The goofy sophomore obviously thought any attempts to cheer Buffy up should come from him.

“So what happened with your brother last night?” Xander asked.

“Nothing,” Lex told him. “I gotta get to class or Flutie will fry my butt.”

“Class? Oh right, that thing with the books and the pencils and stuff.”

“Stuff? Stuff?” Lex shook his head and sighed. Xander would never change. 

The day was mostly uneventful. Buffy, of course, could only talk about her date that night with Owen. Lex found himself rolling his eyes as Willow and Buffy resorted to giggling and chattering non-stop about it. Xander could only glare at the boy from across the quad.

“What does she see in him, anyway?”

“Hmm, broody good looks?” Lex replied.

Xander scowled at him. “You’re no help.”

Lex liked his best friend, but not enough to stroke his ego and lie to him about Buffy’s non-attraction. As she had said a few weeks earlier, she thought of him as just a friend and nothing more. Xander was a good guy, but in many ways, he was just too goofy for Buffy. She seemed to be the kind of girl who liked confidence in a guy. Which left both of them out.

“So we’re heading over to Buffy’s tonight,” Willow said as they headed back in to school for afternoon classes. “You coming Lex?”

“Can’t. It’s Mom’s late night working tonight so I gotta pick up Clark from school and make dinner.”

Willow thrust out her bottom lip. 

“Well, have fun being ‘responsible’,” Xander quipped. 

Lex aimed a mock scowl in his friend’s direction. The one thing he could say about his family life was that at least his parents loved him. So what if he had to help out once a week? 

In many ways, he thought Xander was jealous. The Harris’ weren’t exactly Rockwellian. Tony was known as a drunk who would come home from work and sit in front of the television, drinking, while Xander’s mother, Jessica, tended to walk on eggshells.

Willow’s parents, Sheila and Ira Rosenberg, while not abusive, could be neglectful. They were both psychologists who seemed to take more of an interest in their clients than their own daughter. 

Lex sat through history class trying not to fall asleep as the teacher droned on about Alexander the Great. He was clearly reading from a textbook which was so inaccurate it was laughable. Lex had read about the Macedonian king as a small child, considering he had been named after him, and could practically have taught the class himself. He’d almost made his teacher cry on more than one occasion.

He kept his mouth shut and his head down, however, knowing his parents wouldn’t be happy if he ended up in yet another detention and neglected to pick his little brother up from school. 

Clark was sitting on the bench near the bus stop when Lex arrived. Lois was sitting with him, clearly waiting for her bus.

“So?” she said.

Lex frowned at her. “So what?”

“You said we were going to talk about what happened yesterday?”

Oh, right. The vampire. Lex crouched down beside the girl. 

“Lois, that thing last night …” He’d debated whether to tell the truth to the girl, wondering if she would say something to her father. Then again, he hadn’t been able to come up with another story that would suffice. “That was a vampire.”

Lois scoffed. “There’s no such thing. Don’t treat me like a kid.”

“I’m not,” he said.

She got to her feet, tossing her head as she picked up her bag. 

“Fine. Whatever. You didn’t have to make up a fairy story.”

She stomped off, getting on the school bus without a look back. Clark looked at him and shrugged. 

“C’mon kid,” Lex said. “Let’s go home.”

Clark was quieter than normal when they arrived home, but Lex put it down to the conversation they’d had the night before. He quickly prepared dinner and got it in the oven before going to look for his brother. He wasn’t surprised to find him in the basement, staring at the ship.

“Hey,” he said. “Shouldn’t you be upstairs doing your homework?”

Clark was running his hand over the smooth metal. 

“Do you think they sent me away because they didn’t like me?”

Lex frowned. “How could anyone not like you, Clark?”

“You don’t,” his brother said.

Lex chuckled. “You might be a pain in the butt, Clark, but I don’t dislike you. Now come on. I promised we’d do something about the ship this weekend. Mom and Dad’ll have my hide if you haven’t done your homework.”

“Can I play games on your computer?”

“No.”

“See, I told you you didn’t like me,” Clark whined. 

“Don’t try that trick with me kid.”

Dinner was ready just in time and they’d all settled in front of the television afterwards when Willow and Xander burst in.

“Hey Mrs K,” Xander said. “Ooh pie,” he added, spotting the leftover apple pie from dessert.

“Xander!” Willow said. Lex frowned at his friends and pushed them into another room.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Giles went to the funeral home,” Willow began while Xander mumbled something about a bus crash. Lex frowned at them.

“What about a bus crash?”

“Giles thinks it’s something to do with … you know, that thing that he told Buffy she had to do last night.”

Lex wracked his brain, trying to make sense of the Willow-code, then remembered Giles mentioning something about an anointed one. 

“Where’s Buffy?” he asked.

“With Owen,” Xander said, rolling his eyes. 

“Let me get my jacket,” Lex told his friends, going to grab it from the coat hook and talk to his parents. “Mom, Dad, I’m going out with Willow and Xander. I’ll be back, uh, later.”  
Dad sent him an odd look which suggested he was allowing it, but Lex would have to give him details later. 

Clark got up. “I wanna come.”

Lex shook his head. Clark and a funeral home was not a good idea.

“Sorry squirt. Not this time.”

“But …”

“No, Clark,” Dad said. “Remember what happened last time?”

Clark pouted. “Yeah, you grounded me.”

“And you still disobeyed me. When I say no, I mean no.”

Lex sent his brother an apologetic look as he put on his jacket, then followed his friends out the door.


	7. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lex goes to help Giles and Buffy as they try to track down the Anointed One, then begins to help Clark with the ship.

“Okay,” Lex said. “Want to fill me in?”

Willow frowned at him. “Weren’t you listening when Giles was talking about the prophecy?”

He shook his head. “I had other things on my mind.”

“Well, five people were supposed to die as part of the prophecy. Last night, five people died in a bus crash. Giles went to the funeral home because he thinks one of the people in that crash is the ‘Anointed One’.”

Lex groaned quietly. Why did people who created these prophecies have to sound so damned pompous?

“So what now?”

They ran to the funeral home, which was only a few blocks from the quiet street where Lex lived. Xander was wide-eyed as he pointed. Lex could see Giles inside being pursued by two men in dark clothing. He looked around.

“Let’s see if there’s another way in,” he said, moving quickly along the pathway to look for another entrance. 

“Look!” Willow said as they approached a window with bars on it. Giles was inside, clearly trying to barricade the door in the hope of stalling the intruders, perhaps long enough to escape. 

Xander raised the sash.

“What are you three doing here?” Giles asked, clearly startled.

“We saw two guys following you,” Lex said. “Are they …” vampires, was what he was going to say.

“Yes,” Giles replied. 

This was not a good idea, Lex thought. Knowing Buffy was out on her date, Giles, determined to prove himself right about the prophecy, had gone to the funeral home alone. Now he was in trouble and the only person who could help him was …

“We need to get Buffy,” Willow replied. “She’s at the Bronze.”

“Yeah,” Xander grumbled. “On her date. With Owen!”

Both Willow and Lex shot him a look. Xander was clearly jealous.

They walked quickly to the Bronze, out of breath by the time they got to the main door. Cordelia was standing on the edge of the dance floor, darting vicious glares toward Buffy. Lex deliberately shoved her out of the way.

“Rude much?” the brunette cheerleader complained. 

“Pot meet kettle,” he murmured. 

“There’s Buffy,” Willow said breathlessly. 

Lex noticed a tall man with dark hair standing near the couple on the other side of the dance floor. He did not look happy as he talked to Buffy. He waited as Willow and Xander approached Buffy and began talking, clearly trying to look nonchalant. They hadn’t wanted Owen to get involved, but had come up with what they hoped was a subtle way of getting Buffy out of there. Lex snorted. Subtle had never been their strong point. 

Lex couldn’t help noticing Mr Tall, Dark and Broody watching moodily as Buffy took Owen aside. The couple seemed to be having an intense discussion. 

Cordelia moved in front of him, blocking his view.

“What are you doing here, Freak?” she asked.

“Free country, Cordy.”

“Hmph!”

“Oh get lost, Cordelia. You bore me.”

“Yo, Lexy,” Xander called.

Lex rolled his eyes. He hated when his friend called him that. As he turned to leave the club, he bumped into Mister Broody. The man was only a little bit taller than Lex but he seemed to have the kind of presence that made him look even taller.

“What?” Lex said as the man shot him a glare. “What’s your problem?”

“You’re a strange one,” the man replied.

“Huh! Look who’s talking!” 

Lex followed them out, glancing back at the Bronze. Both Owen and the other guy were watching them intently, frowning. He saw Owen lean over and say something to the man but couldn’t catch what he said. 

They quickly made their way back to the funeral home and went looking for Giles. 

“So, what are we doing here?” 

Lex groaned quietly. Owen had somehow managed to get himself invited to the party. Buffy clearly wasn’t happy he’d come along for the ride as the group made their way to the funeral home.

“What’s he doing here?” Owen whispered to Buffy, but still loud enough for Lex to hear. “I thought this was a double …”

“Oh, Lex is …” Buffy trailed off, clearly not sure how to answer him. Seriously, Lex thought. They really needed to learn to create better cover stories. As if anyone would believe Xander and Willow were a couple. While Willow’s crush on Xander was obvious to anyone who took the time to notice, Xander’s crush on Buffy was just as obvious. 

“Never mind that!” he snapped, pushing his way in between them. He didn’t much care if Owen thought he was an asshole. Giles was in trouble and that was his priority. 

“Wow, he’s kind of rude, isn’t he?”

“Yeah,” Buffy agreed, frowning at Lex. She then glanced at Owen. “Watch him,” she told the others, running back the way they had come. 

Owen stared at them, looking puzzled.

“Is she mad?”

“Oh, she just wants to make sure there’s no guards so we don’t get in trouble,” Willow put in, thinking quickly. 

They started after Buffy. Lex noticed she was looking around warily, clearly on the lookout for trouble as she opened the door into the morgue. 

He did his best to keep Owen distracted, grasping the teen’s arm and pretending to be interested in whatever Xander and Willow were doing, all the while listening for any signs of danger. Owen tried the door on an office, which appeared to be locked. 

Buffy came out of the morgue, followed, to Lex’s relief, by Giles. She declared it was time to leave, hoping to get them out of there while she did what she needed to do, but Owen wasn’t prepared to leave just yet. Lex shot Buffy a look, rolling his eyes slightly and her mouth quirked in an understanding smile. 

He let the others go on ahead and hung back. Buffy grasped his arm.

“You have to get them out of here,” she said.

“I know. I’ll try.”

“Thanks Lex. Knew I could count on you.”

Lex subtly tried to push Owen and the others toward the exit while Buffy went off in another direction with Giles, looking for her quarry. Owen, obstinate fool that he was, kept looking for Buffy. Lex managed to get him and the others into what looked like a viewing room where the deceased’s loved ones were usually taken to view the body. 

As he helped Xander and Willow barricade the door, Owen pulled back the heavy drapes and stared at a body covered by a sheet in the next room, a window the only barrier between them. 

They exchanged a look as Owen stared at the body with an expression of total fascination.

“I’ve read a lot about death but I’ve never really seen a dead body before.”

Lex understood. The boy read a lot of poetry about death and seemed to have a morbid obsession with it, but didn’t really understand death at all. Unlike Lex, who had lost both his real parents, plus a step-parent. He still remembered seeing his mother right before she died. She had been gaunt, the cancer basically having taken its toll on her body. He’d had nightmares for a few months afterward, in which she had haunted him, her body skeletal. 

If Owen had had an experience like that, Lex knew he wouldn’t have had such a fascination.

“Uh, do they usually move?” 

Lex stared. The hand was moving. As they watched in horror, the hand reached up and pulled the sheet off, then the man sat up. His forehead had the bony ridges of a vampire, his eyes were yellow and his teeth had become pointed, like fangs. 

Oh crap! 

Lex quickly turned and began pulling away the barricades as the vampire began muttering something about being judged before smashing the glass. Willow and Xander frantically worked alongside him, pulling the door open.

The four of them ran out, just in time to see Buffy running toward them.

“He’s in there,” Willow said, oddly calm for someone Lex was sure was scared out of her mind. 

They ran, only to find their way blocked by more vampires. Lex looked around for something to use as a weapon, wishing Clark was with them. 

“He’s coming this way!” Willow called out. 

Owen was shaking his head as they raced down another corridor only to be stopped by a dead end.

“Someone’s gotta help Buffy!” Owen said. 

Lex sighed and shook his head. Owen was going to get himself killed, but there was nothing they could about it. He continued looking around for a weapon, not wanting to rely on Buffy or Giles to get them out of trouble. He wasn’t much of a fighter but he was damned if he was just going to let the vampires kill him or turn him, or whatever. 

There was a series of crashes and thuds. Lex looked at the others then ran in the direction Owen had run off to. He arrived just in time to see Owen knocked out. Buffy yelled and kicked the vampire in the stomach. He rolled over the autopsy gurney and onto the floor. She ran around the gurney pushing it into the vampire’s stomach then pushed down so it pivoted and hit him in the chin. He staggered back and fell. 

She jumped up onto the gurney and attacked him again. He swung wildly. She blocked the punch but wasn’t able to block his other arm, knocked to the ground. 

Owen had come to and Willow tried to call out a warning, but Xander stopped her. Buffy continued to fight the vampire, who launched himself at her, only to land on the gurney. The momentum sent the gurney rolling to the door of the crematory and the vampire slid through the open door. Giles slammed the door shut. The vampire screamed as he was consumed by fire. 

They helped Owen up. From the look on Buffy’s face, Lex guessed she was declaring the date a complete disaster. 

While Giles and Buffy left, Lex walked Owen home with his friends, making sure the rest of the vampires didn’t follow them. The other boy didn’t say anything on the way home. Lex wondered if he was brooding over what had happened, thinking after the events of the night, he wasn’t likely to want to see Buffy again.

His parents were waiting up for him when he got home.

“So, what happened?”

“You know, I’m not really sure myself,” he said. “I just hope that we managed to avert disaster anyway.”

He went upstairs, planning on just flopping down on his bed and going straight to sleep. It wasn’t to be, however. Clark was waiting for him in flannel pyjamas which were a little bit too big for him. The ends of the sleeves were flopping over. Lex smirked. Their dad had once owned those pyjamas, but Clark had somehow managed to steal them for himself.

“What happened?” Clark asked eagerly.

“Nothing you need worry about, squirt.”

“C’mon Lex. Tell me!”

“I said no, Clark.”

His brother pouted, sticking out his lower lip.

“You never tell me anything!”

“You know that’s not true. Look, Clark, I’m tired. I have school tomorrow. Friday. Go to bed before Mom and Dad catch you.”

His brother still pouted. Lex was too tired to deal with the kid’s sulks tonight. They’d been lucky they hadn’t been killed. He just hoped that they had found and dealt with the Anointed One or else things were going to get a lot worse around here.

Buffy looked a little down the next day.

“Did Owen say anything about me on the way home?”

Lex shook his head. She sighed in disappointment.

“Well, guess that was a bust.”

Xander began babbling as he usually did about her needing a guy who already knew her secret. Lex didn’t think that was going to solve her dating issues. The problem was, she had a calling, or whatever it was and that was always going to get in the way of her social life. It wasn’t fair, but then again, it was just like his favourite comic book character. He’d loved Warrior Angel since he was a child and still read the comics occasionally.

In most of the stories, Warrior Angel never really got to have a social life either. Something would always crop up, or the love interest died. 

They were surprised to see Owen approach Buffy. Willow quickly pulled them away, leaving Buffy and Owen to talk. A short while later, Buffy found them, looking completely shell-shocked. 

“What happened?”

“He wanted to go out again. I … I told him no. I don’t want to get someone like Owen killed.”

Lex nodded. “Yeah, I get it.” The others also nodded their agreement. 

Buffy still looked dejected. 

“It’s not fair.”

Lex squeezed her shoulders. “No, it’s not fair. Just like it’s not fair that I’m bald or that my brother is …” He stopped himself before he could blurt out his brother’s secret. “A pain in the neck,” he added, getting a smile from Buffy. “But you know, Nietzsche teaches us …”

Xander groaned. “Don’t start about Nietzsche or Greek philosophy or whatever. We’ve heard it all before.”

Buffy frowned, confused. “What about Greek philosophy?”

“It’s his thing,” Willow explained. “He likes to use allegory to explain things. Mostly it just makes him sound smart. Not that you’re not,” she added hastily. “Smart, I mean.”

Lex chuckled. “Yeah, my mom says it’s just me being a wiseass.”

“You are a wiseass,” Buffy said, nudging him. “That’s okay. I kind of like that.”

“I kind of like that you kind of like that,” he replied with a smile. 

Mr Flutie passed by, tapping his wrist as if to indicate the time. Sighing, they made their way back into school and to their next class. 

“So, what are your plans this weekend?” Buffy asked as Lex walked with her to history.

“I’m gonna do stuff with my little brother,” he said. “I kind of promised I’d help him with this project he’s got … for school.”

Buffy smiled. “That’s cool. My mom probably wants to go shopping at the mall.”

“Not that that’s a hardship!” he replied. “Girls and shopping, it’s like a biological imperative.”

Buffy’s eyes widened in indignation. 

“Hey!” she said. “I thought you were on my side!”

Lex grinned crookedly at her before sitting at his desk on the far side of the classroom. The teacher quickly called them to attention.

Early the next morning, Clark scoffed his breakfast.

“Clark, honey, don’t inhale your food.”

“Mooom!”

Lex chose to eat his breakfast at a more sedate pace, watching as his brother fidgeted in his chair. He was conscious of Clark’s green-eyed stare as he pushed his bowl away and gazed at Lex. 

“Don’t do that, squirt! It’s annoying!”

“Hurry up, Lex! You promised!”

“Unlike you, I don’t have an iron constitution. I’d like to actually finish eating without throwing up.”

“C’mon Lex,” Clark said, his tone sounding more like a whine. 

“Clark, don’t whine. Let your brother eat in peace.”

“But Dad!”

“Enough, Clark. If you’ve finished your breakfast, how about helping your mom with the dishes?”

Clark whined, but got up and went to do the chore. Lex shot his father a sly grin and finished the last of his cereal. He excused himself from the table and took the bowl into the kitchen, handing it off, then ruffled his brother’s hair. 

“All right, squirt. Let’s go.”

Dad cleared his throat. 

“Before you do, there’s something I need to give you. But I need you both to promise me that none of this leaves this house.”

“We know already!” Clark replied. “I can keep a secret.”

“Considering you’re a lousy liar, Clark,” Lex returned. Clark poked a tongue out at him.

Dad took a small package wrapped in chamois leather from the writing desk. He unwrapped it and showed it to Clark. Lex frowned at it. At first glance it looked like a piece of board, except it appeared to be metal. There was some kind of writing on it.

“I’ve tried to find out what it says but I can’t find anything that might help me translate it.”

“It looks like hieroglyphics,” Lex observed. “Well, a little.”

“Maybe you can come up with a way to translate it,” Dad said. “We found it beside the ship.”

“Was the ship open when you found me?”

Dad shook his head. “No. It was closed up tight.”

“Oh.”

Lex took the panel. 

“Come on squirt. Let’s go see what we can find out about your ship.”

“Yeah, okay.”

They made their way downstairs and took off the rubber sheet. Clark ran his hand over the smooth metal. 

“I wonder if there’s a way to test it. Find out what kind of metal it is.”

“I highly doubt we’ll find anything that matches it,” Lex told him. “It’s supposed to be from outer space.”

“I guess.”

“I can try to take a sample, I suppose,” Lex said. He walked over to the table where he conducted experiments for his school work and took a scalpel, then went back to the ship. He tried to scrape a sample of the metal but nothing happened. 

“Well, that’s a bit of a bust.”

Clark was touching the surface, frowning at something.

“What’s this here?” he asked.

Lex frowned. “What?”

“There’s an indentation here. Like something was supposed to be here but now it’s not.”

Lex looked. It was octagonal in shape, about half an inch or slightly less in depth. 

“Hmm, I wonder where it is. Dad?” he called.

Their father appeared at the top of the stairs.

“What is it, son?”

“There’s some kind of indentation in the surface.”

“Like an octagon?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, we wondered about that too, but we couldn’t find anything around the ship to match it.”

“Hmm, weird. Okay, thanks Dad.” He looked at Clark. “Maybe you have to have that to be able to open the ship?” he suggested.

“I guess. The question is, how do we find it?”

“That’s the million-dollar question isn’t it?”

Meanwhile, deep within the bowels of a research facility roughly five miles from downtown Sunnydale, a man in a white coat stood studying an image on a scanner. The image was of a small octagonal disk with what appeared to symbols etched on the surface. 

“Anything?” a voice asked over a speaker.

“The metal seems to be unearthly in origin. As for the symbols, they appear to be from a language of some description but nothing in our databases even comes close to matching. Our research team did find symbols which may be a match but they have yet to return.”

“Where have you sent them?”

“A dig in Egypt, a Mayan temple, another temple in China and the last team has gone to see a professor at a university near Smallville, Kansas.”

“I see,” the voice replied. “Make sure the teams report in once they return.”

“Yes, Colonel Lane.”


	8. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A trip to the zoo has disastrous consequences for the gang. Clark may be developing a crush on Buffy.

I hate the zoo, Lex thought, sighing as he watched his fellow students acting like monkeys, although that was actually an insult to the real monkeys, he decided. 

It was the high school’s annual field trip for biology. Lex had already seen the zoo. Clark loved to watch the animals and their parents took them every year for Clark’s birthday. 

He leaned against the fence, closing his eyes against the bright sunlight. It was already in the high seventies and he was hot. That was another thing that was annoying. He could remember in Kansas the temperatures were maybe in the mid-fifties in early April. Certainly not this high. 

The sound of snorting laughter carried from a few feet away and Lex looked over to see the school dickheads, Heidi, Rhonda, Tor and Kyle taunting Buffy, who looked as if she would rather be any place than here.

Lex knew those idiots would just turn around and taunt him if he said anything. The four were known as the school bullies and tended to turn on anyone who dared speak back to them. He’d talked to his father about it, but Jonathan had just told him to ignore them, thinking that if Lex showed no reaction to their taunts they’d just grow tired of it and leave him alone.

Yeah, no such luck, Lex thought as Heidi spotted him.

“Hey freak,” she said. 

He scowled at her. She was a pretty girl but Lex couldn’t stand her. His father had always told him a man was judged by the company he keeps and that meant Heidi, by association, was judged and found wanting. 

Buffy saw him watching and shrugged. He joined her and began walking with her.

“Ugh, I don’t get these field trips,” Buffy murmured.

“Me either. My little brother loves the zoo. Every year since we moved here, on his birthday, my parents take us to the zoo.”

“My dad takes me to the ice show every year on my birthday. What about you?” She frowned. “You know, I don’t even know when your birthday is.”

“It’s in July. I’ll be seventeen in July.”

“Oh. Cool. So what do your parents do for your birthday?”

Usually it wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t that his parents didn’t want to celebrate his birthday. It was more that Lex didn’t really like birthdays. Still, since coming to Sunnydale and being friends with Xander and Willow, and Jesse, of course, he’d at least been able to have a small party with them. 

This year, however, his dad had managed to get tickets to the baseball. Lex didn’t really like baseball but his father had promised him if they went to the game together and he at least pretended to enjoy himself, they’d go to a car show Lex had been wanting to see. 

Buffy stopped at the elephant enclosure, watching the animals. Willow and Xander ran up to them. 

“Hey, Buff, Lex,” Xander cried.

“You missed it.” Lex frowned at Willow. She was acting kind of giggly. 

“Missed what?” he asked.

“We just saw the zebras mating! Thank you, very exciting,” he added, nodding at Willow.

“It was like the Heimlich. With stripes,” Willow added.

Lex just shot his friends a look. They didn’t seem to notice that even Buffy was not amused, chattering on about nothing, until a remark Xander made about the whole point of the zoo visit was the fact that they weren’t actually in class was a bonus that Buffy began to brighten.

The beginnings of her good mood vanished as they followed the path to the monkey enclosure to find Kyle and his cronies bullying Lance, a student who was considered even more of a loser than the Scooby Gang.

Lex observed the bullies as Mr Flutie spoke to them, shaking his head. Mr Flutie tried to act like he was in touch with teenagers but everyone in school considered it a huge joke. The worst culprits of course being Kyle’s gang.

They continued to watch as the others headed for the hyena house, which was apparently closed. Kyle and his friends ducked under the yellow barricade tape. 

Lex considered himself lucky the most the gang had ever done to him was call him a freak. Willow liked to think they were just being obnoxious, but Lex knew things could start to turn nasty very quickly the more the gang was allowed to get away with their bullying. 

Xander decided to go after them and rescue Lance, ducking under the tape to enter the house. Willow wanted to go in as well, but Lex stopped her, thinking Xander probably wouldn’t welcome the intrusion. His friend was clearly thinking he might impress Buffy. 

Buffy looked at him with a worried expression and started for the enclosure anyway, until the zookeeper stopped her, telling her the hyenas were under strict quarantine. Lex stared at him as he began talking about some kind of African tribe and its beliefs about the animals. The man appeared to be trying to be informative, but his tone came off as creepy. 

They hung around outside as the zookeeper disappeared. Lance came running out, looking as if he’d seen a ghost, or something equally creepy. A few moments later, Xander and the others joined him. 

Lex didn’t have time to talk to his friend about what had happened inside as the teachers began gathering the students for the ride back to school. He did notice that Xander seemed suspiciously quiet and broody, even for him. 

The girls were talking about it later that evening at the Bronze.

“Did you notice anything Lex?” Willow asked.

He shrugged. “He was quieter, I guess. Maybe a little more than normal. I don’t know.”

“Yeah, we’re not as hyperaware as oh, say, you,” Buffy pointed out.

“Hyperaware?”

Lex tuned out as the conversation turned to Angel. He turned to watch the door. Xander came in and suddenly it was as if there was some kind of electrical charge in the atmosphere. If Lex had not been totally hairless, the hairs on the back of his neck would have been standing up. Girls turned to look at Xander. He seemed to have put a different shirt on as well. A shirt that wasn’t as goofy as what he would normally wear.

Xander approached their table. Lex couldn’t help but notice there was a slight swagger in his friend’s walk. He grabbed a piece of croissant from the plate in front of Buffy and stuffed it in his mouth, but it was clear from his expression that he didn’t really like what he was eating. He scowled, complaining he was hungry. He was almost rude and belligerent, which was really unusual, Lex thought.

Willow asked Xander if she had done something and Xander quickly dismissed it as crazy talk, but Lex was left wondering as Xander’s odd behaviour continued.

Again there was that electrical charge and Lex immediately saw why. Kyle and his gang had come in. Kyle was staring at Xander, who was staring back. The look on his face was definitely creepy. 

The gang moved to a table began bullying one of the kids, a chubby boy that Lex didn’t recognise, forcing him to move. Xander laughed at something they said, causing the girls to frown at him.

“What?” he asked. “It was funny.”

Lex didn’t think so. Xander was definitely acting weirder than usual. Just what the hell had happened in the hyena enclosure? he thought. 

The next day at school, he saw Xander and Willow sitting out in the quad. Xander seemed annoyed or frustrated, throwing a book in the trash before getting up and walking away.

Lex saw Willow sigh dejectedly.

“Hey Will,” he said, sitting down beside her.

She brightened. “Lex!”

“What was up with Xander?” he asked.

“Maths.”

“Ahh. The age-old problem of what will I need this for when I get out of school? I’m familiar with it.”

“He had it down last week.”

“He’s been acting really strangely since yesterday. You notice that?”

“I guess,” she said uncertainly. 

The sky darkened and Lex could see they were in for some rain. Their next class was P.E. and the coach decided it was a good time to play dodgeball. Lex hated the game, mostly because the jocks would pick on the weaker members of the class. 

He managed to get himself out early on in the game, watching as Xander and the four dickheads played on, getting increasingly more vicious as the game went on. Willow looked upset as Xander threw the ball hard enough to bruise.

Finally, it was down to Buffy. Lance, who was on the other side, looked uneasy as Xander and the four others turned on him. Four balls descended on him in turn and he hid his face, dropping to the floor. Buffy dashed forward, glaring at the others, daring them to do something as she helped Lance up. Xander just walked away.

Clearly things were getting worse as, following gym, Willow had apparently confronted Xander about his behaviour and he’d said something so insulting Willow had run away crying. Before Buffy could say anything, Lex intervened.

“Just what the hell is your problem, man?” he asked, smacking his friend on the shoulder. Xander looked him up and down, then sniggered and walked away. 

One of the girls began laughing and Lex glanced at Buffy, raising an eyebrow. The laugh sounded high-pitched, almost like a hyena.

“You go find Willow,” he said. “Look after her.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I think I need to talk to Giles.”

Giles wasn’t exactly helpful. 

“I really don’t see the problem,” he said.

“Giles, you’re not seeing the whole picture.”

“I think I’m a little more well-versed on the pitfalls of adolescence. Testosterone is a great equaliser. Turns all men into morons.”

“This isn’t anything to do with testosterone,” Lex told him. “Never mind. I’ll figure this out myself.”

He ran up the steps into the stacks and began looking through the card catalogue, trying to find something that would help. 

Buffy came in a short time later and had pretty much the same argument with Giles. Lex put his pile of books on the table and looked at the slayer.

“He’s been all over campus acting like he’s suddenly king of the jungle,” she said. “And the others …”

“It’s like he’s their Alpha,” Lex pointed out. 

Buffy frowned at him. “Alpha?”

“They’re a pack,” he said. “There have been studies done on social groups in various animals. An alpha is the dominant male. Notice the way Kyle’s been looking at Xander?”

Buffy’s eyes widened. “The hyenas.”

Giles finally seemed to be on the page.

“Hyenas?”

“When we were at the zoo yesterday, Xander went into the hyena house. When he came out, he was acting wiggy.” She shook her head. “That laugh.”

“Heidi, or Rhonda,” Lex said. “Sounded like a hyena’s laugh.”

Willow ran in, telling them the pig which had been brought in as the school’s mascot for the football team, the Razorbacks had been found dead. It appeared the pig had been eaten. 

Buffy looked ill. Lex wasn’t far behind her. 

Giles took off his glasses and began rubbing them with a handkerchief, the way he always did when he was trying to think. He put them back on again and stared at Lex.

“Show me what you’ve found so far,” he said.

“It’s not much,” Lex told him, glancing at Buffy, who had grabbed a book and begun reading. 

“Wow, Noah apparently rejected hyenas from the ark,” she said.

“They’re not well-liked, that’s for sure,” Willow observed, reading another book.

“Hyenas are considered to be scavengers, but that’s not what wigs people out about them,” Lex told the girls. “It’s their intelligence. Some people who have encountered hyenas have talked about the look in their eyes, like they’re being sized up.”

“Why couldn’t Xander have been possessed by a puppy, or some ducks?” Willow asked plaintively.

“That’s if possession is the right word,” Buffy replied.

“I’d say it is,” Giles told them. “The Masai of the Serengeti have spoken of animal possession for generations.”

Lex remembered the zookeeper mentioning the Masai even as Giles went on to explain how the possession occurred. He showed them a book of what would happen if it went unchecked. Xander would eventually become a hyena himself.

“I’ve gotta find Xander,” Buffy replied.

Lex frowned at her. How she expected to fight Xander as a hyena was a concern. A possessed Xander was likely to be stronger than a normal human. Given the way he’d been behaving toward her as well, he probably thought of her as a potential mate. Lex’s research had told him that the alpha male would seek out an alpha female to mate with, and that was Buffy. 

“Buffy, be careful. In this state …”

“I intend to,” she said. 

“But, wait, Buffy. You need to listen. If Xander’s the alpha male, he probably sees you as the alpha female.”

“I can handle Xander,” she said. 

He bit his lip as she hurried out of the library. 

“I really don’t think she understands what she could be getting into,” he murmured.

“But it’s Buffy,” Willow replied, confident in their friend’s abilities. 

They continued to research the problem, hoping to find some way to reverse it before things got worse. They were still deep in the research when Buffy came in, dragging an unconscious Xander behind her.

“What happened?” Lex asked her.

“He got a little handsy,” she replied. 

Lex and Willow helped her drag Xander into the book cage, watching as she locked him up. She looked around. 

“Where’s Giles?”

Giles had been called to a teachers’ meeting a few minutes earlier. He came in looking more than a little flustered.

“Giles?”

With a pale face, the Watcher explained Kyle and his gang had been seen outside the room where Mr Flutie had been keeping the pig. They’d subsequently been sent to Mr Flutie. Lex felt even more ill when Giles told him what had happened next. They’d attacked the principal and then ate him. 

They made a plan. Giles and Buffy would go to the zoo and talk to the zookeeper. Willow opted to stay behind to watch Xander, although Lex wasn’t convinced she could handle him in his hyena state. Still, she was adamant and he wasn’t going to argue with her. 

***

Clark was bored. His parents had dragged him out grocery shopping after school instead of letting him play on Lex’s computer. He’d sulked as he followed his parents around the aisles in the local market.

“Mooom!”

“Ssh honey,” she said, perusing a packet on the shelf.

“But Mom …”

“Clark, you’ve been whining for the past half hour,” his dad admonished him. 

Huffing and grumbling loudly, Clark continued dragging his heels as they made their way down the aisles. His mom stopped beside another cart.

“Joyce?”

The woman who had been perusing the shelves looked up and smiled.

“Mrs Kent, I mean, Martha. How are you?”

“Oh, I’m fine. How are you and Buffy settling in?”

Clark tuned out as the two women began gossiping. He’d been forced to go to a community meeting where his parents had met Buffy’s mom. She seemed nice but he was impatient to get this shopping trip over with. 

Mom began talking about Lex and what he was up to with Buffy and the others. Clark hissed at her, knowing from what his brother had told him that Buffy’s mom didn’t know about Buffy being the Slayer. 

“Shush honey. Don’t be rude.”

“Moom! I’m hungry!”

She sighed and shook her head. “Sorry Joyce. You know what kids are like.”

Joyce laughed. “I remember. Buffy was just the same. Still is in a lot of ways. It was nice to see you. Perhaps we should meet up for coffee some time.”

Mom smiled. “I’d like that.”

They continued moving, much to Clark’s relief, finishing the weekly shopping. There was a line about five deep at the checkout and Clark fidgeted impatiently, earning himself a reproachful look from his dad. 

Finally, after about ten minutes of waiting, their groceries were paid for and they were out the door. 

“So what do you want to do tonight?” Dad asked as he drove out of the parking lot. “Want to get some videos or something?”

Mom shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Clark tuned out again on his parents’ conversation, wishing he’d been able to go to Lex’s school instead of being picked up from school. Lex always got to do the fun stuff, he thought. 

They pulled up outside the house a short time later. Clark started to get out of the car when his mom screamed. 

“Mom?”

Suddenly it seemed they were surrounded by several people. Clark noticed Xander was one of them. Only he wasn’t acting like himself. The car began rocking as the five of them tried to get in.

Clark shoved the door open, knocking one of the attackers to the ground. The other four surrounded them, trying to get into the car.

“Clark!” his dad called.

“Mom, Dad, stay in the car,” he said, swinging at the blond haired boy, who laughed wildly. 

He frowned. The laugh didn’t sound like a normal human laugh. It was as if they were behaving like wild animals. The five of them surrounded him. Clark knew he was strong, but he began growing very frightened. These things, whatever they were, were too much even for him to handle. 

Another pair of hands grabbed one of them, shoving him to the ground.

“Buffy?” Clark said.

“Clark. Help me,” she said.

“Clark?” Mom called from the car.

The pack turned on them, growling. Clark realised Buffy was trying to lead the pack away from the car.

“What’s going on?”

“We need to lead them to the zoo,” Buffy told him. “Can you do that?”

He nodded. “Sure I can.”

His parents tried to protest, but he figured it was better to lead the pack away, knowing from his studies at school that predators liked to chase their prey. He watched as Buffy taunted Xander, then began running. He followed her, keeping his speed down just enough so the pack followed him. 

He was glad for once that this was such a small town as they were at the zoo within minutes. Buffy was panting heavily, while he hadn’t even broken a sweat. She frowned at him, but said nothing.

“Come on,” she said, leading him up the path to what he realised was the hyena enclosure. He saw Lex waiting outside.

“Clark?”

“They attacked Mom and Dad,” he said. “They’re right behind us.”

Willow called out, sounding frightened as Buffy ran in. The pack tried to grab her, tackling her to the ground. The zookeeper yelled out something in a strange language. 

Suddenly everyone in the pack’s eyes glowed green, as did the zookeeper. He was holding Willow by the throat, growling menacingly. Xander called out but Clark got there first, shoving the zookeeper away. 

Buffy got up and began fighting with the zookeeper while the four students looked around in total confusion. Clark helped Buffy with the man, getting behind him so the older man tripped, falling into the hyena enclosure. With a scream, he was gone, the hyenas surrounding their prey.

Giles had obviously been knocked out and shoved in the back somewhere as he came out looking dazed. Xander had an arm around Willow while the other four were trying to slink out.

“Don’t even think about it,” Lex warned them. 

After everything was sorted and Giles had taken the four away to face the consequences of their actions, Lex walked with Buffy and the others until they reached home.

“What were you doing, Clark?” he asked.

“Helping me,” Buffy said. “If he hadn’t been there, the pack would have hurt your parents.”

Lex looked at him, a hint of pride on his face.

“Guess I can’t yell at you then, squirt,” he replied. 

Clark shrugged and grinned. Buffy smiled at him.

“You’re pretty handy to have around, Clark,” she said. “Thanks.”

“Sure,” he replied. 

Lex nudged him. They were at their gate. 

“C’mon squirt.”

“Yeah, okay. Night Buffy. Night Will. Xander,” he added, still a little miffed at the way Xander had tried to attack his mother.

“Yeah, see ya,” the older boy replied. 

Together, he and his brother went inside, knowing they’d be in for an interrogation of some sort. Clark sighed. His parents still treated him like a little kid. At least Buffy didn’t, he thought. Buffy was cool.


	9. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone's suddenly seeing their worst nightmare come true. So what's Lex's worst nightmare?

Smallville had been weird but Sunnydale, at the centre of the Hellmouth, was even weirder, Lex thought. They’d almost been bitten by vampires, eaten by a giant shape-shifting mantis, possessed by hyenas and almost killed by a brain-eating monster. Nothing in Smallville could have ever topped that. 

Then there was the new principal, a little weasel of a man who clearly hated kids. Giles had wondered aloud if being an educator was really the appropriate career for a man like Snyder, given his perceived hatred. Lex had to agree on that.

Either the man had blinders on to all the strange things that happened in town, or something else was going on with the man. Lex could understand the other adults in town and their wilful blindness. Yet Snyder seemed to ignore everything that was happening right under his nose.

Take yesterday, he thought, when Wendell had begun screaming in the middle of class. Not to mention the tarantulas which had suddenly appeared from nowhere, sending almost everyone scrambling to get away. Tarantulas were harmless, mostly, Lex had tried to tell them, but he supposed it was natural for them all to freak out. The spiders weren’t exactly your average garden arachnid. 

Of course, Snyder had given Wendell detention for disrupting the class, not wanting to hear a word about the spiders. The man was a complete ass. Even Giles agreed on that.   
Willow nudged him, frowning.

“Where were you?” she asked.

“Hmm? Oh, just thinking.”

Xander joined them. “Hey guys.”

“Hey yourself,” Lex replied. 

“Have you guys seen Buffy?” Willow asked.

Xander frowned. “Buffy? Hm, short, blonde, cute, hunts vampires? No.”

Willow stood on his foot, then pointed. “There she is.” Buffy was just walking along seemingly deep in thought.

“Buffy, we’ve been looking for you.”

Xander tried to look surprised. “We have?”

Lex rolled his eyes. Xander, the class clown. Willow ignored Xander, asking their friend if she’d talked to Giles about the spiders.

Xander looked exasperated. “Willow’s been kind of, um …” He looked at Lex as if he expected him to help. “What’s the word I’m looking for? Insane about what happened yesterday?”

Lex just shot him a look. Xander had been teasing Willow about it ever since. Lex knew there was nothing really to be scared about, but he wasn’t about to make fun of his friend for her fears. That was just mean.

Willow shook Xander off. “I don’t like spiders, okay? Their furry bodies and their sticky webs, and what do they need all those legs for anyway?”

Lex tuned out as Willow began babbling, while Xander looked unrepentant.

“It was pretty intense,” Buffy agreed, looking completely unruffled. Well, she dealt with vampires who liked to hang out in creepy crypts. Spiders were nothing. 

“Thank you,” Willow said.

Xander shrugged. “Hellmouth, centre of mystical convergence, supernatural monsters. Been there …”

Lex shot him a look, staying quiet, while Buffy shot him a strange look, telling him he was awfully blasé. She was right. He was being rather nonchalant about the whole thing. 

Lex followed the others to the library. Buffy called for Giles, who was usually waiting with some kind of dusty tome. 

He came out from the stacks looking around with a bewildered expression.

“Giles, wakey wakey,” Buffy said, sounding amused.

He frowned. “I was, uh, in the stacks. I got lost.”

Lex stared at him. The stacks were practically like a second home to the Englishman. How could he get lost? He glanced at Buffy, who seemed to share his confusion. 

Xander asked Giles what he’d found, meanwhile teasing Willow by wiggling his fingers. She whirled and hit Xander with a hard punch to the shoulder. He looked wounded, clutching his shoulder. He shot her a hurt look.

“It’s funny if you’re me,” he said, half in protest. Lex hit his other shoulder.

“You’re an idiot,” he told his friend. Frankly, he thought Xander deserved more than a smack in the shoulder, but that was his opinion. 

Giles told them he hadn’t been able to find anything and suggested they talk to Wendell. They left the library, finding the long-haired student sitting on a bench. 

Lex was surprised to learn that prior to the incident, Wendell had had a collection of pet spiders, but had had to leave them in the care of his brother when his parents had sent him to Wilderness Camp. Wendell’s brother had left the heat lamp on and the spiders had all died. 

Lex rolled his eyes in sympathy at that. He knew from experience that little brothers were just a pain in the neck sometimes, although Clark would never have done what Wendell’s brother had done. 

Wendell then explained he’d been having nightmares after the loss of his collection, in which spiders suddenly appeared from books, as they had done the day before.

While they were talking to the other sophomore, Cordelia smugly informed Buffy there was a history test that she was missing. Buffy, panicking about a test she had either forgotten completely or didn’t even know they were having, dashed off. 

Lex went to class but just couldn’t concentrate. For some reason his mind blanked completely when the French teacher asked him to conjugate a verb, yet he’d known it perfectly the day before. 

Alerted by some sixth sense, he looked up and saw a boy a little older than his brother standing in the corridor, watching. He frowned. What was a grade school kid doing in a high school? 

Around him, things were growing chaotic. Cordelia, supposedly the most popular girl in school, had suddenly sprouted bad hair and a nerdy look and was being dragged off to play with the Chess Club, protesting all the while. 

Lex decided to go to the library to talk to Giles, only to find Buffy in tears.

“Hey. What’s wrong?” he asked.

“It’s nothing,” she said. 

“Lex?”

He looked around, frowning at his little brother.

“Clark? What are you doing here?”

“There’s some men. At my school. They said they’re looking for aliens.”

He tried to quiet his brother, but the kid was clearly stressed and upset. 

“They came to take me away,” he said. 

“Why would they do that?” Buffy asked.

“’Cos I’m an alien,” Clark told her, despite Lex’s best efforts to shut him up. 

“Clark, shut up now!” Lex told him, but his brother wasn’t listening. He was looking beyond them to something in the distance.

Lex turned to see what his brother was looking at and saw Snyder striding purposefully down the corridor, followed by two men in military uniforms. Behind them was a young boy. Buffy was paying no attention to the principal. Instead, she was watching the boy.

Clark ran down the corridor toward the library. Torn between trying to help his friend and protect his brother, Lex didn’t know which way to go. Buffy solved that for him, heading off to follow the boy, who had turned and begun walking away. 

Lex ran to catch up with Clark, finding him trying to hide in the library. Giles looked at them.

“Where is Buffy?” he asked.

“Why?”

Giles began to explain that a boy currently lying in a coma in the hospital had somehow managed to astral project himself from the nightmare he was in and cross over to the real world. It also meant that everyone’s worst nightmares were beginning to manifest themselves. 

Lex looked at his brother, remembering nightmares he’d had where government soldiers turned up to take Clark away. In one of those nightmares, Clark had sought his protection at the school. He’d been plagued for weeks with the same nightmare, especially after Clark had learnt the truth about himself. Or rather, after they’d been forced to tell him the truth. His little brother knew how vitally important it was to keep his origins a secret. Despite the fact Buffy was the Slayer and her so-called secret destiny was known to him and his friends, he had been reluctant to tell her the truth about his brother.

It would be only natural for Buffy and the others to be curious. After all, Clark was strong for a nine or almost ten-year-old boy. Stronger than the average adult. Almost as strong as the Slayer although while her strength was supposedly mystical in origin, Clark’s was something different entirely. Lex had been unable to study his brother’s physiology, so he had no idea what gave Clark those abilities. 

“Clark, we need to get you out of here,” he said.

“Clark Kent!”

Lex groaned. Snyder.

“What do you want, Snyder?” he asked.

The man sneered at him. “This is nothing to do with you, Kent. There are some men here to talk to this boy.”

“Clark’s my brother,” he said, moving to stand in front of Clark. He hadn’t fully grown yet, but he was still taller than the principal. “Where he goes, I go.”

Snyder shoved him out of the way. For a weasel, he seemed unnaturally strong. Lex tried to stop him as he grabbed Clark’s hand. 

“You’re coming with me,” he said.

Clark sent Lex a pleading look. He turned a frightened glance toward the library doors, where they could see two men in military uniforms waiting.

“Nooo! Lex, please, don’t let them take me. They’ll do that thing to me. Like on that movie.”

Lex stared. He couldn’t understand how Snyder was able to keep hold of Clark, who by rights should have been strong enough to pull away.

“It hurts, Lex,” his brother cried. 

“Leave him alone!” Lex cried in protest. “He’s a little boy.”

Snyder smirked, his expression almost feral as he held up a green stone that appeared to be glowing. Lex recognised it immediately. It was one of the reasons his parents had decided to move away from Smallville. Clark had been playing near a disused factory with Greg Arkin and Pete Ross when he’d fallen, badly cutting his leg. Greg had run all the way to the farm to tell their parents. Lex had gone in the truck with them, horrified to see the huge gash in his brother’s leg. There had been a green stone in the wound, which glowed. Yet almost as soon as the stone was taken out the wound had healed.

“A boy? He’s not even human!”

Lex tried to stop the principal from handing his little brother over, but one of the officers stepped in front of him. 

He turned back to Giles who was staring open-mouthed.

“We have to help him,” he said. 

“Yes, quite,” Giles replied, although he still looked confused. 

Giles led the way out of the library, intending to find Buffy and see if they could stop what was happening. Lex was more concerned with his little brother and how frightened he must be. He ran down the corridor, hoping to catch that little creep Snyder and the military guys. Only he couldn’t seem to find the way out of the school. 

“Lex!” 

He stared in shock at the tall, bearded man standing in the corridor. He looked vaguely familiar.

“Who are you?”

“I’m your father,” the man told him. “Your mother lied to you. I’ve been searching for you for years, son.”

“No.” He shook his head. “My real dad was Hiram Kent.”

“You’re wrong. You are Lex Luthor. You’re my son.”

“No,” he repeated. “Lionel Luthor died nearly eight years ago!”

“She lied to you. She wanted to keep us apart, Lex.”

This was another of his nightmares coming true. When he’d first gone to live with the Kents, he’d dreamed Lionel was alive and had come for him. His memories had faded somewhat, but there had been times when he’d been terrified of his stepfather. The man could be cruel and abusive, especially to his mother. 

Jonathan had always been a source of comfort when Lex had had those dreams, reminding him that it didn’t matter how he came to be with them. That they loved him and always would. They never needed to say the words. They showed it in every hug, every kiss, every smile. 

“The Kents are using you. They’re lying to you about the money, Lex.”

“No. They love me,” he said insistently.

He kept backing away from the older man, refusing to face him. He knew Jonathan would tell him to face his fears, but he had more important things to worry about.

“Lex, please!”

“I have to find my brother,” he said, turning and running in the other direction. The man called for him once more but Lex ignored it.

He finally managed to find the exit and pushed down on the bar, but the door wouldn’t budge. He shoved against it, hoping it was just stuck rather than locked. A feral growl had him looking around and he saw a vampire hiding in the shadows. The creature must have come up from the sewers.

Desperately, Lex shoved hard once more. The door opened and he stumbled out, running as fast as he could toward where he thought the school gate was. He suddenly found himself in an area of the school he didn’t recognise. Looking around, he spotted a huge building he’d never seen before. The walls were grey concrete and at least ten feet tall. There were bars on the windows, making him think it was a prison of some kind. 

He located a door to the building and entered. No one seemed to be around to stop him as he began following along the corridor. It reminded him of a hospital. The walls were painted a stark white. There were no decorations at all on those walls. It was austere and more than a little intimidating.

As Lex continued along the silent corridor, he began to wonder where all the people were. Why was there no security? Come to that, if this was a facility of some kind, where were the rest of the staff? 

He rounded a corner only to spot two men in military uniforms walking along in deep discussion. Lex couldn’t hear what they were saying but he flinched, flattening himself against the wall in the corridor he had just come from and waiting until the two men passed. They had been so deep in their conversation they never noticed anything was amiss and walked right on by. 

Lex decided to explore in the direction the two men had been walking from. There were doors along the corridor, leading to who knew where. Lex was tempted to open one of the doors and see where it led, but the sound of a child screaming had him looking up. That sounded like Clark!

He ran along the corridor, skidding to a halt when the corridor came to an abrupt end. He found himself facing a large metal door. He tried the handle but it appeared to be locked. Lex stood on tiptoe and peered in through the glass window, only to see to his horror several people wearing surgical gowns and latex gloves working around someone on an operating table. They had him cut open, rather like the creature in that movie he’d gone to see with Xander and Willow last summer. 

The figure moved and the head came up as the subject struggled against the bonds holding him down. Clark!

Lex frantically tried the handle, shouting, but no one seemed to hear him. He heard Clark screaming, only to be suddenly silenced. 

“Noooo!” Lex screamed. “Clark!” 

He started as a hand grabbed his wrist.

“Whoa! It’s just me!”

He whirled and stared at Xander, who was wearing the clothes he usually wore for gym.

“How did you get here?”

“I don’t know man. This is your nightmare!”

“I gotta help Clark.”

Xander looked in through the window and shook his head. 

“He’s dead, Lex.”

“No, that can’t be!” Lex looked in again. They were covering up Clark’s body with a sheet. There was blood all over the fabric. “Not Clark.”

“This kinda reminds me of that movie we went to last summer,” Xander observed calmly. His eyes widened as he realised the implication. “So Clark’s an alien? No wonder he was such a freak.”

Lex angrily turned on his best friend. “Don’t you dare!” he hissed. “That’s my brother in there!” 

“Look, I get it, man. But your brother was always …”

He looked taken aback as Lex grabbed his shoulders. 

“Don’t you ever call my brother a freak! Not ever!”

He turned and started running. Xander ran to catch up with him.

“Lex, I … I mean … I didn’t mean …”

Lex ignored him, running out of the facility. He had to find his parents and tell them what had happened. His father would never forgive him for letting Clark get killed. 

As he turned to try to find his bearings, he stared across the street. Xander, panting from trying to keep up with him, looked confused. 

“Since when is there a cemetery across the street from the school?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Lex said. 

Together they ran across to the cemetery only to encounter Giles and Willow. Giles was talking about his own fears about Buffy. As Lex looked down, he saw a gravestone inscribed with Buffy’s name. 

Suddenly a hand appeared out of the newly turned soil. Lex reached down and grabbed it, pulling Buffy out of her own grave. He stepped back, startled at her appearance. She was a vampire!

“What?” she asked.

“Buffy, your face,” Willow said.

Buffy felt her face, clearly dismayed to discover she was now a vampire. The very thing she was supposed to hunt and kill. 

Lex listened as Giles told them the more nightmares that manifested themselves, the greater chance that that world would skew reality. The only way to end the living nightmares was to wake up Billy, the boy in the coma. 

Together, the gang dashed to the hospital. Lex watched as Buffy confronted the monster and helped the young boy beat his own demons. When the boy woke from his coma, Xander was suddenly dressed in normal street clothing. As was Willow. Buffy was no longer a vampire.

If everything was back to normal, then surely that meant … Lex turned to leave.

“Hey, Lex, where are you going?” Buffy asked.

“I have to check on something.”

“Don’t you think we should talk about Clark?” Giles said.

Lex frowned at him. It seemed that even though it had been his nightmare, since they’d lived it along with him, they had witnessed everything that had happened and remembered it. 

“Uh …”

“What about Clark?” Willow asked, since she hadn’t been there to see what was happening.

“Later, I promise,” Lex told her.

He left the hospital and ran home as fast as he could. He burst through the door, startling his mother, who stared at him in surprise. Clark was sitting at the kitchen table, eating a chocolate chip cookie. A glass of milk was on the table. 

Lex ran to his brother and wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug. Clark protested, spraying cookie crumbs everywhere.

“Lex!” Clark squeaked. “What’re you doing?”

Lex drew back, smiling down at his little brother. He ruffled his hair. 

“Nothing squirt. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” he asked in confusion. 

“It’s a very long story,” he said. “I just …” He sat down at the kitchen table, relieved to learn his nightmare had just been that. He was still faced with the dilemma of explaining Clark to his friends, but for now, he was just happy that Clark hadn’t been captured after all.

He had no sooner got in through the school gate the next morning when he was ambushed by Giles.

“We need to talk, Lex,” the English librarian told him quietly.

Reluctantly Lex followed him to the library. Xander, Buffy and Willow were sitting at the table where they usually held their discussions.

“Okay, I guess I owe you an explanation,” he said.

“So, Clark’s an alien?” Buffy asked. Giles glanced at him for confirmation, as did Willow. Xander didn’t look at him at all.

“Uh … well, see what happened is, there was a meteor shower in Smallville and my parents found Clark. Then they found a spaceship.”

“Where is he from?” Giles enquired.

“We don’t know. All we know is that he’s stronger than most humans and can run pretty fast.”

“How fast?” Willow asked, clearly fascinated.

Lex shrugged. They’d never actually clocked his speed. The first time Clark had run, he’d been upset over a fight at school. He’d started running and had told them later that within about a minute he’d been lost in the forest. Which had been at least two or three miles away from the farm.

“Is he a danger?” Giles asked, always the pragmatic one.

“As opposed to what? Vampires? Demons? Come on, Giles, he’s a kid.”

“A kid who could probably crush a person with his bare hands,” Buffy replied. 

“Clark wouldn’t do that,” Willow said. “He’s too much of a sweetie.”

Lex nodded. Willow had always cared for Clark as if he was her little brother.

“Besides, he’s been helpful, hasn’t he? He helped you when Xander was possessed by a hyena,” Lex pointed out. “And he helped us with Darla that time.”

“That is true,” Giles replied. “I do think I should have a word with your parents, however.”

“And say what? That they should keep an eye on him? Keep him locked up? Way to reassure the kid. Look, my worst fear since I found out about my brother is that someone will come and lock him up. Yesterday that fear almost came true. If you go and confront Mom and Dad, they’ll worry even more and that’ll make Clark worry. He might be strong, but he’s kind of sensitive about the whole subject.”

“So he knows?” Buffy asked.

“Yeah, we told him a few weeks ago. Well, we figured out he already knew about the ship and he was worried that he wasn’t, well, normal. He is normal. For him. We just don’t want him thinking that he’s a bad kid because he’s not like us.”

Willow nodded. “It’s like someone telling you you’re not normal because you’re the Slayer, Buffy,” she said giving her unique perspective on the topic. 

“We shouldn’t ostracise him because of where he comes from,” Lex replied. “I mean, yeah, he can be a pain in the neck sometimes, but he’s my brother. No matter what. And if you dare say anything against him then I guess you’ll be forcing me to choose between you and him.” He looked at Xander as he said it. He still hadn’t forgiven Xander for the things he had said, even if it had been part of the nightmare. 

Xander flushed and looked down at his feet.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. 

Giles was the one to break the sudden tension.

“Ah, well, good. That settles it. This remains between the five of us.”

Lex nodded. “Thanks Giles. The kid feels like a freak enough. I’d prefer it if you didn’t treat him any differently.”

He glanced once more at Xander, who appeared flushed, before turning on his heel and leaving the library. He had almost made it to his locker when Buffy caught up with him.

“You don’t have to worry,” she said. “If anyone understands how your brother feels, it’s me.”

He nodded. “Thanks Buff.”

“And you’re right. We shouldn’t, uh … what was that word you used?”

“Ostracise.”

“Yeah, that. And I promise I won’t say a word to him. Not until you think he’s ready.” She smiled. “Besides, he might be a pain in the neck but give him a couple of years I bet he’d be really good in a fight.”

They walked together to their lockers. Buffy’s was only a couple away from his. They grabbed their books at the same time.

“Um, you know he’s kinda got a crush on you, right?” Lex said, grinning at her. He’d noticed how Clark hung on her every word every time Buffy came over to get help with her homework. 

She snickered. “Yeah, I know. I’ll let him down easy. Eventually. I wouldn’t want to hurt the squirt’s feelings.”

Lex chuckled. “Wouldn’t want that.”

Snyder passed and sneered at them. “Get to class,” he growled. 

Lex rolled his eyes, tempted to poke his tongue out at the man.

“Little weasel,” he muttered. He slammed his locker shut and began walking with Buffy to her class. 

“I thought Flutie was bad with his ‘getting in touch with his inner teenager’ vibe, but Snyder …” She shuddered. “I hate to wish bad on anybody, but sometimes I just wanna …”

“I know what you mean.”

They reached the classroom door. Buffy stood there, shrugging. 

“Well, ‘bye Lex. See you for study group after school,” she added, for the benefit of the teacher, who was glaring impatiently at her. 

“Study group?” Cordelia scoffed. “Like you would ever study!”

“Like we care what you think?” Lex replied, turning and walking off. 

He was met at the door of his own class by Xander.

“Uh, look, man, I’m sorry. Really. About what I said. But you know that’s kinda part of the whole nightmare thing, right?”

“Xander …”

“I get it, okay? I mean, if anyone knows what it’s like to feel like … I don’t know, Scooby, it’s me. By the way, I figured that out. About the whole Scooby gang thing. That’s where he got the idea isn’t it? That if we’re, yanno, Fred and Shaggy he’s Scooby. I may not be as smart as you, but I do pay attention sometimes.”

“Who says you’re not as smart as me?” Lex asked. 

“Well, you’re like a genius. You and Willow, you’re like, Einstein and some whole other smart guy put together. Me, I’m … you know. Odd guy out.”

“Whether you know it or not, Xander, you are smart. If you applied yourself to something …”

His friend shrugged. “Well, whatever. I gotta get to class before Snyder goes on the warpath.”

“Yeah, me too. See ya.”


	10. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buffy learns of the Slayer Prophecy concerning the Master, Clark turns ten, the Master rises

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm choosing not to re-hash every Buffy episode. This is from Prophecy Girl.

Lex had been late getting to the Bronze. His parents had wanted him home for a special dinner, since it was Clark’s tenth birthday. While they did fight a lot, after the incident with the nightmares, the last thing Lex wanted was to lose his little brother. 

As he entered the club, he heard Xander talking to Willow. 

“See what I should do is I should just start with talking about the dance.” He cleared his throat. “Y’know, Buffy, Spring Fling just isn’t any dance. It’s time for students to choose, um … a mate and then we can … observe their … mating rituals …”

Lex arched an eyebrow at the redhead. Mating rituals? he mouthed. She grinned back as Xander continued to babble on and assured her best friend he was doing fine.

“What’s up?” Lex asked.

Xander turned and looked at him, startled. “Uh, hey Lex. How come you’re late?”

Things had been a little tense between them for a couple of weeks. Lex still couldn’t get out of his mind the things his friend had said about Clark. While Buffy, Giles and Willow seemed to accept Clark’s other-worldliness, Xander hadn’t been so accepting. When he’d come to the house the other night, Clark had been trying to talk to him about something and the other boy just couldn’t seem to get away fast enough. Clark had asked Lex later what he’d done to upset Xander. 

“Sorry, Mom and Dad wanted a special birthday dinner for Clark.”

“Aww, Clark’s tenth birthday. Bet he got spoiled,” Willow said with a grin. She’d given Clark a book on space she knew he’d like. He had a telescope which their father had passed down to him and loved to study the stars. Clark hadn’t been home but Lex had promised her he’d give it his brother.

“So anyway, I was gonna ask Buffy to the Spring Fling,” Xander said. He got off the stool. “So I think I’m ready. I’m gonna ask her.”

“Where is Buffy anyway?” Lex asked.

“I think she’s out, you know, patrolling,” Willow replied, giving Xander a look. Lex sighed softly in sympathy. Xander would never see her as anything but a friend, he thought. Not as long as the blonde vampire slayer was around. He liked Buffy, a lot. She was sassy and tough. Not that he was going to ask her to the dance. He didn’t have a crush on her the way Xander did. Or even Clark, he thought with a grin. Poor kid. 

Xander wandered off to get drinks. Lex put a hand on his friend’s shoulder and shook it gently. 

“I’m sorry,” he said. 

She shrugged. “I’m used to it.”

“But you shouldn’t have to. You’re a great girl, Will. If he can’t see that, then he’s just blind.”

She bit her lip. “Would you like to go to the Spring Fling with me?” He hesitated, just for a second. She immediately took that as rejection. “Sorry, that was dumb.”

“No, Will. It’s not dumb. I’d like to go with you, it’s just … I can’t dance,” he admitted, feeling his cheeks grow hot. 

She grinned. “Neither can I. How about we just make it up as we go along?”

He nodded. “Deal!” 

Suddenly there was a rumble and the table began to shake. Willow stared at him in alarm. Xander returned and quickly pushed them under the stairs. The shaking became more violent. Fixtures fell off the walls, crashing to the tables, including the one they’d just been sitting at. It was a while before the tremors ceased.

It wasn’t Lex’s first earthquake but something about that felt weird. He looked at his friends and they both shook their heads. 

When he returned home, his parents were busy cleaning up the damage from the quake. A few things had broken but it didn’t look too bad.  
Clark came running down the stairs. 

“Lex, we had an earthquake!”

He smiled at his brother and ruffled his hair. Clark was in the new pyjamas Mom had given him for his birthday. She had found the fabric at the local craft store and thought it would be perfect. It depicted Elmer Fudd chasing Bugs Bunny. Clark loved his cartoons and had once had an Elmer Fudd nightlight, although he claimed he was much too old for such things now. 

“I know squirt,” he said. 

Clark squirmed away from him. “I’m not a squirt. I’m ten now. I’m too old to be called ‘squirt’.”

“My mistake,” Lex replied. “Of course, I forgot, you’re a big man now. Being all of ten.”

Dad grinned and winked at him. “You go and finish sorting out your room, Clark,” he said.

“But Dad …”

“No, now come on. It’s a school night. Even ten-year-olds have to be in bed early on school nights. It’s in the secret handbook for ten-year-olds.”

Clark frowned at their father. “What handbook?”

Dad winked and pressed a finger to his lips. “Shh, it’s a secret handbook.”

Lex laughed behind his brother’s back as Clark groaned and stomped up the stairs to bed. 

“Was everyone all right at the Bronze?” Mom asked.

“Yeah, but they had to close early because of the earthquake. Uh, Mom, Willow and I are gonna go to the Spring Fling together, so I need something to wear?”

“You and Willow going to the dance?” Mom said, her expression suggesting she thought it was the cutest thing in the world. Lex refrained from whining.

“Just as friends, Mom. Honest. I just don’t know what to wear. I mean, don’t I need a suit or something?”

“I’m sure we can figure out something honey. Did you finish your homework?”

“Not yet. I’m gonna go upstairs and finish it now.”

“All right sweetie. Goodnight.”

Next day at school, he met up with his friends for biology class. The students were restless as the teacher droned on about something. Even Lex, who loved anything to do with science, was bored.

“God that was boring,” Buffy groaned as they left class. It had been stifling hot inside the classroom and they fanned themselves trying to cool off. 

“You’re telling me,” Willow said. “And I’m a science nerd.”

Xander shot her a look, telling her he wanted to be alone with Buffy. Lex grabbed his friend’s hand. “Hey wanna go get some sodas?” he asked.

“Sure,” she said with a smile. Buffy grinned at them. They’d already told her they were going to the Spring Fling together. 

They sat on the couches in the student lounge, drinking their sodas. 

“Poor Xander,” Willow said, sipping a diet Coke. She made a face. She was always complaining that she tried to get Root Beer but somehow the soda machine always gave her Coke. 

Lex shrugged. “Yeah, but you can’t say that we didn’t warn him.”

“True dat,” she said. “Are you guys still … you know … I mean, after all that stuff about Clark being yanno …”

“He’s been a bit weird around Clark, but I guess he’ll come around.”

“Did you tell your Mom and Dad yet? That we know?”

He shook his head. “I haven’t even told them about Buffy.”

Cordelia waved at them. “Hey Willow, hey Lex!”

Lex arched an eyebrow at the brunette. 

“Okay, what do you want and what is it going to cost us?”

She scowled at him. “I don’t want to talk to you,” she said. “I’d rather talk to Willow.”

Will looked at her incredulously. “Me?”

“I need a favour,” the cheerleader said. “The Bronze won’t let us use their sound system …”

“Well yeah, because you know, high school kids really know how to take care of expensive equipment,” Lex interjected sarcastically, earning another scowl from Cordelia, who continued talking to Willow in a tone that reminded Lex of a telemarketer who was trying really hard to sell something. 

“And I really need someone who knows how to hook one up. If you could just show up tomorrow morning …”

Willow nodded distractedly, her gaze locked on something or someone behind Lex, clearly agreeing to help Cordy with no idea of what she was agreeing to.

“So, ten tomorrow?” Cordelia asked as Willow walked away. Lex looked at the dark-haired cheerleader and shrugged. He got up, following his friend, ignoring the puzzled look from Cordelia. Obviously she wasn’t used to being walked away from. He remembered last week she had been the target of attacks from a girl who had suddenly gained the power to become invisible. Buffy had told the gang how Cordelia had tried to tell her just how lonely it was at the top. 

When Lex had been little, Lionel Luthor had never believed in coddling children and had often lectured his stepson on the great leaders of the past. He’d even given him a model of the city of Troy, telling him it was not a toy but a strategy tool. Books were not to be read for enjoyment or pleasure but were educational tools. When he’d started learning to read, he’d read books on philosophy, or mythology, not Dr Seuss. 

Cordelia’s situation had reminded him of something he’d read in a book on Machiavelli. Something about the bigger they were, the harder they fell. Not that he felt any sympathy for the ‘poor little rich girl’. 

He overheard Willow talking to Xander, who was obviously upset about having been rejected.

“At least now you know.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Xander said. “The deal’s done. The polls are in and it’s time for my concession speech.” There was a pause. “Hey, I know what we’ll do! We can go! Be my date!”

“No,” she said.

“Good! What?”

“Sorry, I’m already going with Lex,” she said. Lex chose that moment to step into the classroom. She grinned at him. 

Xander frowned at them. “What? You two? When did this happen? How did I not know about this?”

Lex shrugged. “Snooze, you lose!”

Willow again smiled brightly at him. Maybe it was only a small thing but it had clearly helped her self-esteem to know that someone cared enough about her and saw her as date material. Lex was suddenly very glad he had agreed to go with her. Because of his lack of hair he knew only too well what it felt like to be treated like an outcast or a freak. Willow had never treated him that way and he liked that.

“So, we’ll see you on Monday,” Willow said quietly. She took Lex’s hand and together they walked out of the classroom, leaving Xander staring after them open-mouthed. 

The next morning, Saturday, Lex was up early doing his chores while his mother sorted out a nice shirt for him to wear to the dance. As he finished the dishes, Clark came downstairs, rubbing his eyes. He’d been promised the annual trip to the zoo and they were going to collect his little friend Lois from the army base. Lex had begged off the trip, feeling a little nervous about the dance.

The phone rang and Clark picked it up.

“Kent residence,” he said, trying to sound important. “Hi Willow. Thank you for my book. It’s great. It’s got pictures of the planets and everything.” He paused, listening. “Sure, I’ll get him.”

He looked at Lex, then held the phone out. Lex dried his hands on a towel and grabbed the receiver.

“Hey Will, what’s …”

“Something happened at school,” she said. “I met Cordelia and we were going to get the guys and …”

He listened as she told him what she’d found. They’d gone to the Audio-Visual room to find Cordelia’s boyfriend. The television had been on and cartoons were playing. At first they’d thought it was just the boys being boys until Willow had seen the blood. Vampires had killed the boys.

“God Lex, there was so much blood. I …”

“Do you want me to come over?” he asked. 

“I … I don’t know. I just … think I need to be alone for a bit.”

“Okay. Well, you call me if you need anything,” he said. 

It looked like there would be no Spring Fling for them tonight, not that he was really concerned about that. Willow was upset. Sure, they’d seen a lot of strange things since Buffy had started at the school but nothing could have prepared Willow for the horror of what she’d seen. 

Mom looked at him. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”

“You don’t need to iron that shirt, Mom. I’m not going to the dance. Something bad’s happened at school.”

“Is everything all right, son?”

He shook his head at his father. No, nothing was all right. He wasn’t sure if it would be ever again. Vampires had come onto school grounds, invaded their space. Maybe it wasn’t the first time a vampire had killed at the school but there was something so … horrifying at what Willow had described. 

Lex was puzzled. There had to be some kind of reason this was happening now. Buffy had mentioned that the number of vampires had grown, as if they were all congregating in town. He wondered if it had something to do with the Master. The old vampire had tried to get free of his prison once. Maybe he was trying to get free again.

He and Willow had already done a lot of research on the vampire. Most of it was more or less speculation or notes from Watchers long dead, but so far all the stories they’d read had suggested that the old creature had somehow managed to get himself trapped beneath a church. Churches were consecrated ground and legend had it vampires and other creatures were forbidden to go there. 

He spent the afternoon and well into the evening looking up websites on his computer but while they did have a lot of information about vampire cults, there was nothing definitive about the Master. He decided Giles’ books would probably have more than that and told his parents he was going out, not telling them where. 

They were watching television and didn’t even look up, thinking that since it was still daylight out there wasn’t much chance of him being attacked. Little did they know, he thought. 

He left the house, walking quickly to school. The first he knew that he was being followed was the scrape of a shoe on the ground. He turned.

“Clark, what are you doing?”

“Where are you going?” his brother asked.

“Nowhere. None of your beeswax, squirt. Go home.”

“Don’t call me squirt,” Clark said. “Tell me, I wanna know.”

“Clark …”

“It’s Saturday, it’s not a school night,” Clark argued, anticipating his brother’s next words. That he should be home getting ready for bed.

Lex knew there was no way he could stop Clark from following him and there was no way he could turn around and take his brother home again. He sighed and rolled his eyes. 

“All right, come on.”

Clark kept up an endless series of questions as Lex reached the school grounds. He shivered. It wasn’t cold but he still felt the cold perspiration anyway. 

“Why are you going back to school?” Clark said. “I thought you weren’t going to the dance?”

“Clark, shut up!”

He made his way to the library, only to stare in surprise as he saw Willow and Xander had beaten him there. Giles was with the computer teacher, Ms Calendar, who was holding what looked like a wet towel to his head. 

Xander was glowering at the older man. “How could you let her go?”

“Let who go?” Lex asked.

His friend looked at him. “Buffy.”

Giles looked at Xander. “As the soon-to-be-purple area of my jaw will attest, I did not let her go!”

Willow hugged Clark while Giles looked at Lex, raising an eyebrow in query. Lex sighed and shook his head. 

“What’s happened?” Lex asked. “I’m a little behind here.”

Giles quickly explained there had been a prophecy which predicted Buffy would die in a battle with the Master. She hadn’t taken it well. Then Willow chimed in, saying Buffy had been at her house after she’d heard about what happened at the school. According to Willow, Buffy was not acting herself.

Lex looked at the librarian and Watcher, wondering how he’d ended up with a bruise on his jaw. The older man had then told him he’d decided to defy the prophecy and go after the master vampire himself, only for Buffy to knock him out with a punch to the jaw. 

“Buffy’s gone after the Master,” Willow told him. 

“Sorry to bring this up,” Ms Calendar said. “But we also have an apocalypse to worry about.”

Xander looked at her. “Do you mind?”

Lex shot his friends a look even as Willow complained that Ms Calendar did not belong in the Scooby gang. Lex rather disagreed with that, considering she had helped Giles trap the demon, Morloch. 

Xander quickly made a decision to go after Buffy. Clark clearly wanted to go with him but Xander shook his head.

“Sorry squirt, this is for grown-ups.”

Clark glared at him. “You’re not a grown-up,” he accused. 

Lex grinned at his brother. He made a very good point. Xander was hardly grown-up, considering he was sixteen. 

“Hey! Once the Master gets free, the Hellmouth opens, the demons come to party and everyone dies,” Ms Calendar reminded them.

Xander scowled. “I don’t care,” he said. “I’m sorry, I don’t. I have to help Buffy.”

“How exactly do you plan on finding her?” Lex asked. “We have no idea where the Master is.”

“I know someone who does,” his friend told him. 

Giles went to the stacks, ostensibly to look for some books about the Order of Aurelius, clearly hoping they would give some more insight into the Master. 

“The Master is as old as any vampire on record.”

Ms Calendar spoke up. “The Master rises, the Hellmouth opens, but where?”

Giles looked at her.

“Good point. Willow, Lex, see what you two can find out. Look through any local histories, try to find some common denominators.”

“What about me?” Clark asked.

Giles pulled off his wire-rimmed glasses and began wiping them with a handkerchief. It was a habit he seemed to use when he was trying to do some sort of internal analysis.

“Clark, I think it’s best if you go home.”

“No, I wanna help.”

“You’re a child.”

Ms Calendar looked up from where she had been looking through a heavy volume. 

“You’re not seriously thinking of sending a little boy out there, are you?”

Lex didn’t want to explain to the computer science teacher about his brother. Since he didn’t know her all that well, he had no idea how she would react to Clark’s other-worldliness.

“Quite,” Giles said, catching Lex’s eye and nodding as if to say he understood. “Then perhaps you should help your brother, uh, Clark.”

Clark tried to help but he didn’t understand half of what was going on. All he did know was that some demon was going to rise and try to take over the world if they didn’t stop him. He knew Buffy was the Slayer, even if he still wasn’t quite sure what that meant. 

“So what does it mean?” he asked his brother for the fifth time. “I mean, what does this Master guy have to do with Buffy?”

“Well, see, Buffy’s the Slayer,” Willow told him.

“Yeah, I know that. She’s a girl who slays vampires. I mean, why does it have to be her? Why can’t other Slayers do it?”

He saw Willow and his brother exchange a look before turning to Giles. 

“I’m afraid it doesn’t work quite like that, Clark. You see, there can only be one Slayer.”

“You mean like the Highlander?” he asked, remembering Lex loved the movie about an immortal man who would have to fight other Immortals until there was only one left. 

“No, this is different. You see, there’s a legend that a group of men imbued a girl with powers so she could fight demons and vampires. Into each generation a Slayer is born, one girl in all the world, a Chosen One, one born …”

“Yeah, Giles, we’ve heard all this before,” Lex interrupted. “Clark, basically what that means is there’s only one Slayer and when she dies another girl is chosen to take her place.”

“So is Buffy gonna die?” Clark asked.

“Not if we can help it. That’s why we need to find the Master.” Lex slammed the book he was reading closed. “These books don’t tell us anything we don’t already know.”

“Well, let’s think about this then. The vampires have been gathering, they know he’s coming …”

Ms Calendar frowned. “So, do you think they’ll gather at the Hellmouth?”

Giles nodded. Clark still didn’t understand about the Hellmouth but he figured Lex would explain it later. 

Willow spoke up. “What about the Bronze? I mean, that’s where he sent vampires to get him fresh blood when he tried to rise the first time.”

Lex stared. “The dance!”

Willow nodded, along with Giles, who spoke urgently, saying they needed to warn them. Ms Calendar grabbed her bag.

“Willow and I will go. You two, sorry, you three, need to concentrate on demon killing.”

Clark watched as the teacher and his friend left the library. He glanced at Lex, but his brother was already deep in conversation with Giles. He ran out, making his way to the parking lot. It was dark outside but he could see the teacher hunting in her bag. She suddenly stopped and stared toward the football field. 

Clark could see about two dozen vampires heading toward them. He whirled, staring as more vampires began to gather around them, effectively trapping them. There was a screech of tyres and the girl Lex always complained about yelled at the other two. 

Willow spotted him.

“Clark, get out of here!”

“What are you doing you …” He didn’t hear the rest of the dark haired girl’s sentence as she screamed. A vampire had tried to reach in to grab her. Clark ran up and pulled the  
vampire off, throwing it a few feet away.

“Go!” he said. “I can stop them.”

Willow looked uncertain, biting her lip, but nodded. The vampires had started to turn their attention to him while the car sped off, heading the way he had just come, toward the library. 

He stood and faced the monsters, fists swinging. Some of the demons managed to get some good punches in but they were no match for his strength. Even at ten years old, Clark was much, much stronger than any normal boy his age. Probably even stronger than Buffy, he thought. 

He spotted more vampires following the direction of the car and figured the others would need his help. He ran into the building, using only half super-speed, managing to get ahead of some of the vampires. He heard the girls screaming as they ran for the library doors.

“What about Clark?” Willow was screaming. “We can’t leave him out there.”

“Clark?” Lex yelled. “What the hell is he doing?”

“Lex, I’m here!” Clark shouted. He pulled one vampire away from the door as the creature tried to grab someone’s arm. Another vampire tried to grab him from behind and sink its fangs into his neck. He shook it off with barely any effort and shoved it hard, sending it flying. 

“Clark, you have to stake them in the heart!” his brother told him.

Clark wasn’t stupid. He knew some vampire lore, but knowing what to do and actually having the means to do it was another thing. He continued to fight off the demons, trying to keep them away from the library.

Willow screamed. Clark desperately tried to get to the doors but another vampire got in his face. He punched it hard in the solar plexus. Any normal human would have the wind knocked out of them but for a moment he’d forgotten that vampires were actually dead, or rather un-dead so they didn’t breathe. Still, there was a satisfying crack as he managed to break a few ribs in the process, knocking the creature down. 

He shoved through the doors, breaking whatever had been blocking them and saw to his horror some kind of tentacled thing. When he’d first learned the truth of what he was, he had had nightmarish visions, wondering if he was going to develop tentacles, like the aliens in the movies.

There was another scream and he darted forward. Giles was hacking at the tentacles which had managed to wrap around Willow’s ankle. Lex was holding onto Willow, trying to keep the creature from dragging her into the huge hole in the floor. Clark grabbed the tentacle and used all his strength to break it, sending some kind of slimy liquid flying. The creature screamed, if it could be called a scream and retreated. 

With a loud crash, glass was thrown everywhere and something fell from the skylight. Clark watched in horror as the thing that fell was impaled on a broken beam from the floor and disintegrated. 

The group stared in muted horror. Clark ran to his brother, who hugged him.

“You all right?” he asked.

Clark imagined he would be bruised but other than that he was fine. Lex didn’t seem to be hurt. 

The dark-haired girl, who had been standing at the door, looked at them. 

“So, uh …”

“Cordelia, my brother Clark. Clark, this is Cordelia.”

“Hi,” Clark said shyly. The girl smiled briefly. She was clearly confused and shaken up by what had happened. 

The doors opened and Buffy walked in, wearing a long white dress. Her hair was wet and the dress was a little creased and dirty, but she looked otherwise fine. She was followed by Xander and a tall man. Clark frowned at him.

“Who are you?” he asked.

The man stared back at him, clearly just as surprised to see him there.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

Lex sighed. “Angel, this is my brother, Clark.”

Angel arched an eyebrow. “You let a kid …”

“He’s not a kid,” Xander said. “He’s an al …”

“Xander, shut up!” Lex told his friend. 

“He’s a what?” Angel asked.

“An alien,” Xander blurted. 

Clark stared at Xander, then at his brother. “You told?”

“Clark, it’s not … I’ll explain later, okay?”

Angel smirked. “Right. Alien. I’ll believe that.”

Giles snorted. “And yet somehow the irony escapes you.”

Clark turned back to his brother for an explanation as the others began talking about going to check out the dance at the Bronze and walked toward the doors. Willow looked at Lex.

“You guys coming?”

Lex nodded. “We’ll join you in a minute,” he said. He beckoned to Clark, then sat on one of the only undamaged tables. “Clark, a lot of weird stuff has happened this year. And I’m sorry. I really didn’t have a choice but to tell them the truth.”

“Why?” Clark asked, feeling hurt that Lex would just blurt out his secret like that.

He listened as Lex explained about some nightmare he’d had and what the Hellmouth had to do with what had happened. Clark didn’t understand much about mystical stuff but he knew Sunnydale wasn’t like normal towns. Weird stuff happened all the time here. 

“Are they gonna tell people?”

Lex shook his head. “It’s like us not telling people Buffy’s the Slayer,” he said. 

“So, Buffy’s like some kind of superhero?” Clark remembered his brother loved comics and had a small collection of Warrior Angel comics. 

They began walking out of school to catch up with the others. All the vampires had retreated. Now that the Hellmouth was closed again, and the Master was dead, Lex explained, the vampires had no unity. 

“I guess she is, yeah. Not like Warrior Angel though. I mean, Warrior Angel can fly.”

“Do you think I’ll fly some day, Lex?”

“You never know, squirt,” his brother replied, ruffling his hair. “You never know.”


	11. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summer is over. Buffy returns from L.A. with some issues. Vampires try to bring back the Master.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so I didn't want to rehash everything from the episode so I just worked around it, pretty much. Also, with the way I set it up in the previous chapter I figured there was no way the vampires could control Clark to do the revivification ritual so that's why I wrote it the way I did. I also liked the idea of Clark turning to Buffy as someone who could understand him on a deeper level. I never thought of Buffy as not smart, but with her calling, she just didn't have time to devote to her studies. Clark may be young in this but he's not stupid.

Summer was pretty much an anti-climax after killing the Master. Buffy had gone to L.A. to spend a few weeks with her father. Giles was kept busy sorting out the library after the construction crew had been in to make repairs. Principal Snyder hadn’t exactly been thrilled at the mess and it had been obvious from the look on his face as he saw the destruction that he had been trying to figure out a way to blame it on the Scooby Gang.

Snyder was new to the school. Giles had quietly confided to Lex that he wondered if Snyder had been brought in as some kind of hatchet-man. Or else he was just there to cover up all the strange goings-on. The man had an unpleasant personality and walked around with his nose in the air looking like he’d smelled something bad. And that something bad was the students. 

Lex had helped Giles get rid of the Master’s bones and they’d buried them, using holy water to consecrate the site. There had been rumours of the Master’s followers still trying to gather but most of them had left as soon as the Master had been killed. 

Burying the bones had been a rather surreal exercise. Lex still had nightmares about the Master rising up from the grave while they’d been gathered at the site. 

Lex hadn’t spent much time with Xander. Their friendship was still strained. His friend still acted weird around Clark, despite everything Lex’s brother had done to help them get rid of the monster from the Hellmouth. 

They still met at the Bronze occasionally and Xander would complain about his father’s heavy drinking or the fights between his parents. Lex, who still remembered what it was like between his birth mother and stepfather, could be sympathetic, up to a point. He still recalled fights between Lionel and Lillian. Martha and Jonathan did have their arguments but for all that, they clearly loved each other and were never afraid to show affection around their sons. Jonathan drank beer and would sometimes go out with his work colleagues, but he never drank to excess. 

He still hadn’t told his parents what had happened with Clark. His brother had also been very quiet on the subject. After the dance, Buffy had taken the ten-year-old aside and told him it was okay, and it would be their little secret. That no-one else would have to know unless he wanted them to. Lex admired Buffy for that. She alone knew the heavy burden of strange abilities and despite the fact she claimed not to be all that smart, he decided it had been very astute of her to have shared that with his brother. Clark didn’t say much but Lex knew all his little brother wanted was to belong. 

He was downstairs helping his mom fold the laundry.

“Not going out tonight, sweetie?” she asked.

“Not really feeling like it,” he replied, shaking his head.

“Have you and Xander had a fight?”

“No, well … maybe. I don’t know.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“Thanks Mom, but no. I mean, it’s just guy stuff.”

The phone rang and his mother paused, putting down the sheet they’d been folding and went to pick up the receiver.

“Hello? Oh, hello Willow. Yes, he’s right here.” She looked up and held out the phone. Lex took it.

“Hey Will, what’s up?”

“I thought you might like to come to the movies tonight. We were going to go see George of the Jungle.”

“I dunno. I kind of promised I’d help with chores.”

Martha was frowning at him and shaking her head. Lex sent a questioning look back at her. 

“Oh,” Willow said, sounding disappointed. “Well, if you change your mind, it’s at six, okay?”

“Sure. Thanks Will.”

He hung up the phone. His mother looked at him. “Sweetie, go. You don’t have to help with chores.”

“But, I …”

“No. School starts next week and you should enjoy yourself with your friends while you still can.”

Clark chose that moment to come down the stairs. 

“Mom, I’m bored,” he whined. 

Lex looked at his brother, then turned a pleading look on his mother. “Maybe I can treat Clark to the movies,” he said.

“What movie?” Clark asked. “Can Lois come? She and her dad just got back from Washington.”

“It’s George of the Jungle.”

“I don’t know,” their mother said dubiously. “It’s not exactly a kids’ movie.”

“I’m not a kid, Mom. I’m ten.”

“Mom, it’s PG. I think it’ll be okay,” Lex told her. He’d seen a few kids even younger than Clark at a PG-rated movie. His brother could handle it. He’d already seen a few movies on tv that were rated higher than that and could handle them just fine. 

“All right.” She grabbed her purse from the counter. “But don’t go spending all your allowance. Get some ice cream after the movie. On me,” she added with a smile.

“Yes!” Clark whooped, running back upstairs to call his friend. 

Xander didn’t look too happy to see Clark, or his friend, Lois, when they turned up to the movie. Lois was complaining that she wasn’t allowed to go out for ice cream afterwards. Her father had told her he would have someone from the base pick her up after the movie got out. 

Lex sat with Willow and Xander and let his brother sit with Lois somewhere further down. Again, there was that odd tension between him and his friends but Willow was clearly pretending nothing was wrong. 

The movie was okay. Lex liked it in bits but he preferred action or science fiction. It was growing dark when the theatre let out. They waited outside until a man in army fatigues showed up. Lois grumbled but went with him. 

The ice cream shop was not that busy and they quickly chose their ice creams. Xander barely looked at him as they left the store. Willow sighed.

“Okay, that does it!”

“Does what?” Xander said.

“You two. I mean, you’ve gotta stop this.”

“Don’t look at me,” the dark-haired boy replied. “I didn’t do anything!”

“Except treat my little brother like a freak,” Lex pointed out. 

“You don’t …”

“Xander, you know what it’s like to be treated like, well, like an outcast. Don’t do that to Clark. He can’t help being a you-know-what. He’s still the same little kid you used to play ball with.”

“I’m not a little kid,” Clark said, sounding miffed.

“Hush, sweetie,” Willow said, clearly on a roll. “Now you and Lex have been kinda iffy and it’s not fair.” She turned to Lex. “And you … I know you’re mad because Xander kinda wigged out and stuff, but … bygones, you know? I mean, I know the summer’s been real quiet and all, but we’re like the Slayerettes. We can’t fight.”

Lex had to admit she had a point, in her own Willow way. It was them against the vampires and the demons and what-not. Still, Xander shouldn’t have treated Clark like he was suddenly someone to be afraid of. Maybe they didn’t know everything Clark could do, but treating him that way would only make him more afraid of his own abilities. He tried to quietly explain that to his friend.

Xander nodded. “Yeah, guess you’re right. I’m sorry, man. I mean, I’m not totally, yanno, okay with it, but I will work on it.”

The two boys shook hands. The four of them continued walking, talking about nonsense. Xander was clearly done with summer, saying he couldn’t wait for school to start again. As they paused under some trees, Lex heard rustling. He looked over Willow’s shoulder and gasped. A vampire.

“Will!” 

Clark clearly wanted to fight the demon but Lex pulled him back, telling him to run. Out of nowhere, something tackled the vampire, knocking it to the ground. The figure turned.

“Hi guys,” Buffy said with a smile. “Miss me?”

They had no chance to reply as the vampire once again lunged, only for Buffy to quickly dust it. 

The weekend passed without incident and school re-opened. Now that they’d made up, Xander and Lex resumed their usual banter. Xander decided to make a bet on how long it would take Giles to mention his books. Willow bet fifteen minutes while Lex bet five. Xander went for the middle. 

Sure enough, when they told the librarian about the vampire encounter, he decided to consult his books. 

“Ha, looks like I called it,” Xander said. “Eight minutes and thirty-three seconds. I called ten. Pay up, losers!”

Lex couldn’t help but notice that Buffy was quiet most of the day and most of the next day as well. When they met up at the Bronze after dinner the second day, it was even more obvious that something was bothering the Slayer. 

Cordelia, who had been telling everyone about her heinous summer, was her usual bitchy self. They’d already had a run-in with her earlier that day but for some reason her jibes had lacked punch. Buffy, on the other hand, had hit the target and knocked it flat.

“I suppose all you three did was hang out here,” she said. “Like you losers could ever do anything original.”

“Well, I guess it beats … hmm, where did you say your nightmare vacation was?” Lex prompted. “Oh yeah, your parents took you to Tuscany. Imagine, no beach all summer. Looking a little pale there Cordy? No tanning salons in Tuscany?”

She snorted. “I wonder what look you’re going for, Lex? Didn’t anyone ever tell you the Kojak look went out with disco?”

Buffy chose that moment to pull Xander out onto the dance floor. Lex noticed Buffy’s boyfriend, Angel, looking a little upset as he watched the slayer dance very closely with the dark-haired boy. Even Cordelia appeared a little confused by the blonde’s odd behaviour. 

Lex decided to talk about it the next day with Giles.

“Well, I don’t really see …”

“She’s being a bitch,” he said.

The English librarian nodded. “Well, yes, Willow did mention something about it earlier. I rather think we have a little more than that to worry about. The Master’s bones were dug up last night.”

“I thought the ground was consecrated?” Lex asked.

“It was. But clearly the Master’s followers were determined. We should exercise caution.”

“What’s happening, Giles?”

“It’s a revivification ritual. But as I told Buffy, I’ve never heard of one being successful before. Uh, here, why don’t you study this. It’s a little unclear.”

Lex read the translation from the Latin. It seemed odd that Giles was so uncertain but he guessed that the Watcher was more than a little concerned at what had been going on. 

“So what does it mean by connection?” he asked as Buffy and the others came in. Clark entered behind them, having finished school for the day. Lex had told his parents that he worked on extra-curricular projects in the school library and they’d asked him to supervise Clark until it was time to go home.

“To be honest, I’m not totally certain. Perhaps my translation is a little off.” He explained what he had read to Buffy who seemed to shrug it off.

“My guess is, that’s me. We killed each other. It really promotes togetherness.”

Lex frowned at her. She sounded a little blasé by his assessment. Xander began to ask about the ceremony when there was a loud crash. Buffy picked up the rock that had come through the window. A silver bracelet was wrapped around it with a note.

Cordelia had been taken by the vampires. 

Buffy left, refusing to let the others go with her. Willow tried to tell her it was a trap but she wouldn’t listen. It seemed that over the summer she had decided that since she was the Slayer, it was up to her and her alone to deal with the vampires. 

Clark tried to go after her, wanting to help, but Lex pulled him back, shaking his head. Once Buffy was gone, they resumed studying the books. Giles adopted an expression almost as if he was constipated as he tried to make sense of the text written about the ritual. 

“I still think we should have gone with her,” Willow was saying. Lex agreed. 

Xander shook his head. “Buffy’s about to lose it. I think we should be trying to reach minimum safe distance.”

As much as Lex thought his friend had a point, he wondered if there was more to it than that. It looked to him that Buffy’s issues had started with her ‘death’ in the Master’s crypt and things were about to come to a head. He thought they should be supporting her, preventing the explosion rather than trying to get a safe distance.

Willow continued to argue, saying Buffy had walked into a trap. Clark also tried to interject and the three of them began talking loudly, which caused Giles’ frown to deepen. Lex had just decided to yell at them to shut up when Giles exclaimed out loud. 

“Ah! The Latin is translated from the Sumerian,” he began, his voice rising with excitement. Lex had to fight a grin. The older man was such a nerd sometimes. He seemed to fit the image of ‘stuffy Englishman’ very well. 

“Closest to the Master actually translates as ‘nearest’,” he continued. “Physically. The … the … the person or persons who were with him when he …” He looked up, taking off his glasses. “It is a trap,” he added.

Lex looked around and realised there were several vampires on the mezzanine of the library. Giles was right. Except the trap was for them and not for Buffy.

He did his best to fight the two vampires who tried to grab him. Clark was also trying to fight them but there were too many. He screamed as Xander was knocked out and Willow was dragged out. 

Lex glared as he struggled in the grip of two vampires. Another pair were struggling with Clark, surprised at his strength.

“Help me with this kid,” one of the vampires told another of the gang. “I can’t hold him.”

“Sucks to be you,” Lex snarked. He felt a blow to the back of his head and passed out.

Clark screamed. “Lex!” He struggled with the three vampires now attempting to pull him away. While he was strong, he couldn’t fight all three of them and worry about his brother as well. They forced him out of the library and took him to a part of town he didn’t recognise. 

The building looked like a warehouse of some kind. Some bones lay on a table in the middle of the room. Clark guessed they were the Master’s. A dark-skinned vampire glared at him.

“What are you doing?” he berated the other vampires. “This boy should be with the others for the ritual to be successful.”

“The boy’s too strong,” one of the demons told the leader. 

Clark thought quickly. The others had to be somewhere in the warehouse. He still didn’t really understand what Giles and Lex had been talking about when he got to the library but he wasn’t going to let these things hurt his big brother. 

Ever since the night the Master vampire had died, they’d been closer than ever. He’d always looked up to Lex, but it felt like that night had changed a lot of things for them. It was like they had a shared secret. The two of them and Buffy, Willow and the others. 

He’d liked it when Buffy had talked to him about his secret. It felt like she understood what it was like to be different from everyone else. Well, Lex understood too, but the Slayer seemed to understand in a totally different way. When Clark had learnt he was an alien, a huge part of him had resented it because it had meant he would never be like everyone else. 

There was an unspoken agreement between the five of them, seven counting Giles and that other girl, the cheerleader, that they never mentioned what had happened to his parents. 

Clark’s thoughts were interrupted by the lead vampire getting in his face. He glared back at the demon, or as much as a ten-year-old could.

“You should be afraid of me, little boy,” the creature snarled.

“Why?”

The vampires retreated, huddling in a group. Clark knew they were discussing what to do with him. From the few bits he heard, he realised they couldn’t do some ritual without him, but some of the vampires were too afraid of his peculiar strength to even attempt it. 

Clark took the opportunity to wander around the warehouse to see if he could find his brother and the others. He figured Buffy would be coming soon and all he needed to do was find a way to stall their ritual until she could get there. 

The vampires soon noticed he was gone and began searching for him. Clark used his speed to taunt the demons, appearing behind one of them and shoving it into another one before speeding to the other side of the warehouse. The lead vampire began to get frustrated. Clark could only laugh. This was fun. 

Buffy showed up and began fighting the vampires. So did Xander and that other guy, Angel, which Clark thought was a silly name for a guy. 

“Buffy!” he said.

She nodded at him. “Good boy, Clark. Go help Xander.”

He frowned at her, wanting to fight, but something in her expression told him this was something she needed to do herself. He went with Xander to wake up the others and they watched from above as Buffy fought the vampires alone. Angel helped her by fighting off another vampire but it looked like the Slayer was doing all the work.

Clark wanted to go down and help her but Lex shook his head. They looked around them. Giles was talking softly with Ms Calendar and Xander was holding Willow who must have been hit harder than the others as she was still unconscious.

“Where’s Buffy?” Ms Calendar asked, still sounding out of it.

“She’s, uh, working out her issues,” Xander replied. 

Clark heard the lead vampire shout something at Buffy before it held up a sledgehammer and attacked her with it. A vampire tried to attack the Slayer from her other side. Buffy grabbed a tall wooden torch post and broke it off, spinning it a few times before impaling the vampire behind her. The leader ran into the burning end and screamed as the flames spread. 

Buffy stood in the middle of the room, looking over at the skeleton as if considering something. She picked up the sledgehammer and smashed it down on the bones several times until most of them resembled dust. Clark bit his lip as the Slayer burst into tears and turned. Angel wrapped his arms around her, holding her. 

Lex looked at his brother and shrugged. 

“Now it’s over,” Xander commented quietly. 

Clark didn’t have the opportunity to talk to Buffy until a couple of days later when she came over to talk to Lex about a school assignment. Their parents had gone out shopping for groceries. 

“Hi Buffy,” he said as he went to help himself to some milk. He grabbed the bottle from the fridge and began drinking from it. The blonde grinned at him.

“You’re not supposed to drink from the bottle,” she said, chuckling.

“Tastes better this way,” he replied. 

“Yeah, I hear ya. Listen, thanks for the other night. I’m sorry I got you into that mess. Lucky for me you’re pretty strong.”

He shrugged. “I guess.”

“You’re a good kid,” she said, reaching over to tousle his hair. 

“I’m not a kid,” he told her, pulling away.

“Yeah ya are,” Lex said. “You’re also a pain in the ass.”

“Am not.”

“Are too.” His brother grinned at Buffy, who grinned back. It looked like whatever issues she had had been sorted out by what she had done to the Master’s bones as there was no tension between them. 

“Well, I gotta book,” Buffy said, picking up her books. “Stay out of trouble.”

“You too,” Clark told her. 

She rolled her eyes. “You’re kidding, right? I’m the Slayer. Trouble always seems to find me.”

“I hear that,” Lex replied, walking her to the door. “See you in school.”

“’Bye squirt,” Buffy said, smirking at Clark. Considering he was almost as tall as her, that struck him as funny. He smirked back at her, watching as she quietly closed the door.


	12. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's parent-teacher night at school and Lex has to babysit both Clark and Lois.

Now that Clark was ten, he figured that gave him a little more leeway where being out and about was concerned. After all, Lex was allowed out later, why shouldn’t he? 

His parents disagreed. They were always telling him to make sure he was in the house before dark. Of course, he realised they were more worried about the monsters and stuff that hung around Sunnydale. He remembered something that English guy had said about the mouth of hell, which his brother had told him gave off some kind of psychic energy that made the town a mecca for the demons. 

He hadn’t known what a mecca was but he wasn’t about to let his brother know that. After all, he was ten now and ten-year-olds knew lots of things nine-year-olds didn’t. 

He still tried to get his own way and be allowed to do what he wanted after school but his parents insisted he go to the high school and study in the library until Lex was ready to go home.

“What are you doing?”

Clark felt the sharp pointiness of Lois’ jaw on his shoulder as she tried to see what he was doing. It didn’t hurt, but it was annoying just the same. They were once more at the Sunnydale High School library. He was supposed to be studying while Lex and Buffy and the others were doing - well, he didn’t know exactly what they were doing but it wasn’t Slayer stuff from what he could tell. 

Buffy was at the table with a large knife, cutting vegetables. At least he thought it was a knife. It didn’t look like the type of knife his mother would use to cut the vegetables for dinner. 

Giles was lecturing Xander, Willow and Lex, and that cheerleader girl, Cordy, on some kind of feast. Clark didn’t think it had anything to do with the food Buffy was making. 

Giles paused in the middle of lecturing to look over at them. 

“Are you children doing your homework?” he asked.

“Um, yes?” Clark replied.

Buffy turned to grin at him. “Is that a question or a statement, squirt.”

“I’m not a squirt,” he said. “I’m almost as tall as you.”

The blonde screwed up her nose. “Yeah, keep reminding me.”

He grinned back at her before turning back to his studies. Lois returned to her seat, grumbling. The computer teacher, Ms Calendar, came over to check on them.

“What time is your dad picking you up, Lois?” she asked. Clark glanced at the pretty teacher. He knew she was worried that Lois might tell her father what they were doing in the library but his friend was pretty good at keeping secrets. He’d once asked her what her dad did and she’d told him it was all classified.

“That means it’s secret,” she’d added.

“I know what it means!” he’d returned.

“So what does your brother do with that girl? Buffy?”

“It’s classified.” He smirked at her, repeating a line he’d heard in a movie once. “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”

“You wish!” she’d responded, punching him in the shoulder. 

Lois looked up at Ms Calendar. “He’s not,” she said. “He’s away. He left for Washington this morning.”

“Well, who’s looking after you while your father’s away?”

The eleven-year-old – she had just celebrated her birthday before school started again – grimaced. 

“I have to stay with Lieutenant Dawson,” she said. She rolled her eyes. She’d already told Clark that Lieutenant Dawson, who was her father’s assistant, had three kids of her own who annoyed Lois constantly. 

Ms Calendar looked concerned but didn’t say anything more. When Clark had told his mom that Lois’ dad made her stay with another family on the base when he went away, she had also been worried, saying it wasn’t good for a girl Lois’ age to be dumped with anyone who wasn’t family. Not that Clark was suggesting she stay with them or anything. Lois might be his friend, but she was also a pain in the rear.

Cordy began complaining about the work she was doing.

“Can I go now? She doesn’t need this many stakes.”

She went on whining, saying something about how she would ‘totally be there’ wherever there was, but she had a leg wax. Clark didn’t know what she meant by that but it didn’t sound fun. 

Buffy shot him a grin as she left, saying she was ‘punch bound’. Clark grinned back at her, glancing back at his brother and the others who began to help themselves to some of the food. The blonde Slayer poked her head back in the door. 

“No!”

Clark shot his brother a questioning look.

“Parent-teacher night,” Lex explained. “Snyder put Buffy in charge of organising.”

“Um, why?”

His brother shrugged. “Who knows how that we … uh, how our principal’s mind works,” he amended with a quick look at Giles. The Watcher didn’t appear to have heard a thing. He was absorbed in reading a heavy volume. Clark liked to read but even he drew the line at books that were just about half his size. 

They continued to read for a while until Lois grumbled something under her breath. Clark looked at her.

“I’m hungry,” she said, eyeing the food on the trays. “Even those carrot sticks would be good right now.”

“Buffy said no,” Willow replied. “That’s supposed to be for the parents.”

“Can’t we have one?” Lois wheedled, getting up to go over to the table.

Ms Calendar stepped in. “You know, I think I might have something in my desk. How about you come with me, Lois?” she said. 

Giles looked at the other teacher. Clark frowned at him, wondering why the man was giving her these sort of puppy dog looks. He dug in his pocket and pulled out a couple of bills. 

“Why don’t you get a couple of, uh, chocolate bars from the vending machine,” he suggested. 

Clark’s stomach growled at the thought of candy. “Lex? Can I get some candy?”

His brother looked at him. “You’re not allowed candy before dinner,” he said mildly.

“Please?” He added a whine for good measure. “I’m so hungry.”

Lex came over and ruffled his hair. “You’re always hungry. All right.” He dug in his pocket and brought out a wadded bill. “Bring me back something too, okay?”

Clark followed Lois and Ms Calendar out, walking down the corridor with them to the cafeteria. Some people had already started entering the school. Buffy passed them, looking stressed. He gathered she was on her way back to the library to pick up the veggie platter. 

Ms Calendar stood with Lois while they chose something to eat. Clark looked around, wondering what it would be like to go to this high school in a few years. 

“What are these children doing here?” a voice asked.

Clark looked around and stared at the man. He was balding on top and had an odd-looking face. He wasn’t very tall, probably a few inches shorter than Lex, who was just shy of six foot. 

“Principal Snyder!” Ms Calendar appeared startled. “Uh, they’re here until someone picks them up,” Ms Calendar told the man. Snyder sneered at them. Clark just stared back at him, daring him to say something mean. Lex had told him the new principal hated kids.

“They shouldn’t be here at all.”

“Well, this young man happens to be Alexander Kent’s brother and this young lady’s father is Colonel Lane.”

The man looked at Lois, appearing impressed. “I see.”

“My dad’s in Washington,” Lois told him, pouting. Clark didn’t know if she was putting it on for the benefit of the principal or if she actually meant it. Lois didn’t talk much about her dad but he got the impression she hated that he always had to go away. The few months they’d been in Sunnydale was the longest they’d stayed anywhere since her mom died, she’d told him. 

“Be that as it may, we are having Parent-Teacher night and you two should be at home.”

“My ride’s not picking me up for another hour,” Lois replied, glaring back at the snivelly little … principal. 

“Then I suggest you find somewhere else to occupy your time. Perhaps the library.”

“We’ve just come from there, actually,” Ms Calendar replied. “The children were hungry.”

“Then get their snacks and go!”

He turned on his heel and left the cafeteria. They glared at his retreating back.

“Horrid little man,” Ms Calendar muttered. When she saw Clark and Lois grinning at her, she flushed, then grinned back. 

Lex came in. “Mom called,” he said. “I’m taking you two home with me.”

“But …” Lois looked at him. “My ride …”

“He’ll pick you up from our house,” Lex said. “Mom felt sorry for you, with your dad away and figured you could eat dinner at our house. Unless you wanna eat in the Mess?”

She shook her head. Lex waved his hand toward the exit.

“Then let’s go.”

Clark turned and looked at the pretty teacher. “Um, ‘bye Ms Calendar.”

“’Bye, Clark. Be good.”

He shrugged. “I’m always good.”

“Except when you’re not,” his brother replied, cuffing him on the ear. It didn’t hurt but he flinched just the same. 

Lex took the kids home. Since he’d got his driver’s licence over the summer, he was allowed to drive to school in the Dodge Charger he and his dad had worked on in their spare time. His parents worried more now that they knew there were things like vampires around school. Not that they knew every little detail. 

His mother was busy at the stove cooking dinner when he walked in the door behind Clark and Lois. 

“We’re eating a little early so your dad and I can go to the parent-teacher evening at your school,” she said. 

“Uh, I kinda promised I would help Buffy out,” he said. She’d asked if he and Willow could run interference and keep the principal and her mother from meeting. She’d been worried about what Snyder would say, especially with her many unexplained absences. Xander was helping Giles in the library to research the Night of St Vigeous, since it was supposed to be on Saturday. 

“Lex, honey, I know you want to help your friend, but I need you to stay here and watch over the kids.”

“Moom,” Clark whined. “We don’t need watching over. We’re not little kids.”

“You cannot stay in the house on your own and that’s final! Lois, how are you sweetie?”

“I’m okay.”

“I hear your father’s in Washington. Where are you staying?”

“With a neighbour. They have three kids – one of them’s my age and the other two are twins. They’re four.”

“Do you get on all right with them?”

She shook her head. “Not really. The little ones get into my stuff and the mom and dad don’t do anything.”

“Well, that’s no good at all. A girl your age shouldn’t be made to stay with someone if you’re not happy there. Why don’t you stay with us while your father’s out of town?”

“Mom!” Clark sounded outraged.

“But it’s already arranged,” Lois began. 

“Nonsense. I’ll just give your father a call and have a talk with him.”

Lex hid a grin as Clark glared at their mother. He’d had a feeling when he’d told her about Lois’ situation that she would invite her to stay. Maybe Lois had only been in Sunnydale a few months but his mom had already practically adopted her. As far as she was concerned, Lois needed a woman’s influence and a firm hand to keep her from getting into trouble. She’d already had one argument with Colonel Lane over the way he neglected his daughters. Lois’ sister, Lucy, was in a boarding school in Europe. 

He still had the problem of what to do about Buffy. He figured he should get in before his mother talked to Sam Lane. Given how Lois often described her father’s moods, it was likely to be a battle of wits.

“Mom, I really did promise Buffy I’d help out.”

Martha frowned at him. “What is so important that you need to help her?”

“Well, she’s been … she was tol … uh, she volunteered to help out with the parent-teacher night and she can’t do it on her own. What if I got the neighbour to watch Clark and Lois tonight?”

She shook her head. “I asked Mrs Stokes earlier but she’s not feeling well. I’m sorry, sweetie. I know you promised your friend, but I really need you tonight. It’s only for a couple of hours.”

What could he say to that, he thought. His parents really didn’t ask too much of him.

As his mother called Lois’ father, the front door opened, and his father walked in.

“Hello,” he said. 

“Hey Dad.”

“Hi son. Hey Clark, you might want to pick up your shoes before someone trips over them.”

“Uh, what?”

“You left your shoes in the hallway.” Jonathan held them up. They were Converse High-Tops. 

Clark frowned. “Those aren’t mine,” he said. “I don’t even own Converse.”

Lois blushed and darted forward to grab them. “Sorry, Mr K. They’re mine.”

“Staying for dinner, Lois?”

Mom joined them, looking very pleased with herself. “Your father’s happy to have you stay with us while he’s away,” she said. “As long as you’re on your best behaviour.”

Dad frowned. “What’s this?”

“Her father’s in Washington for a couple of days. Lois was supposed to stay with a neighbour but I suggested she stay with us.” She didn’t explain what she meant by ‘best behaviour’ but it sounded to Lex like the neighbour had complained to Colonel Lane. He doubted the colonel would listen to his own daughter’s complaints over someone who had military rank, which seemed rather unfair. 

Lois took it in her stride, promising to behave herself with a quick shrug of her shoulders. 

Dinner was served up as soon as Jonathan had had a chance to wash up. The parent-teacher evening was starting around six-thirty. 

Lex called Buffy to let her know he couldn’t help.

“I needed you to run interference with Snyder.”

“I know, Buff. I’m sorry but I have to babysit Clark. And his little friend.”

“Can’t you bring them with you?”

“And face the wrath of Martha Kent when she finds out? She’d skin me alive, Buff!”

“She won’t find out.”

He snorted. “Yeah, right! This is my mother we’re talking about. She’d find out.”

Buffy sighed. “As if I didn’t have enough to deal with with this St Vigeous thing.”

“Tell you what. Tell Giles I’ll do some research here and that’ll free up Xander.”

It was Buffy’s turn to snort. “Xander? He wouldn’t have a chance at distracting Snyder. You know what he’s like.”

He had to admit she had a point. Xander wasn’t exactly inept but it took a certain amount of thinking outside the square to get around someone like Snyder. 

“Lex, honey, could you do the dishes please?”

“I’ll be right there, Mom,” he called out. He turned back to the phone. “I gotta go. I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Sorry, Buff. I really did want to help out but … my parents, you know?”

“Yeah, I know,” she said. She clearly wasn’t going to protest. The few times she’d visited the house she’d got along well with his mother and she knew very well his mother wouldn’t ask him to babysit unless she was in a bind. 

Once his parents had left for the school, Lex finished his chores and began studying on his laptop. Clark and Lois began watching some program on the tv. Lex looked up as the volume increased.

“You two done your homework?” he asked.

“We did it at the library,” Clark said, his mouth full of crumbs. He’d obviously been into the cookie jar.

“Did Mom say you two could help yourselves to cookies?” Lex asked.

“She didn’t say we couldn’t,” Lois replied.

“Semantics.”

“Sema what?” she asked. 

“Never mind. Turn the volume down. I’ve got some studying of my own to do.”

“Don’t want to,” Clark said. Lex snorted to himself. Ten-year-olds. He didn’t remember acting like that when he was ten. Then again, he’d been newly adopted by his parents and still a little unsure of his place. 

A series of bangs, crashes and sirens could be heard coming from the television speakers. Lex winced. If this kept up, he would have a splitting headache. How did his parents deal with it?

“What the heck are you two watching?” he asked, getting up to look at the screen. 

Clark shrugged. “I dunno.”

“Lots of police chases, shooting, dumb stuff like that,” Lois explained.

“You kids shouldn’t be watching that stuff,” he said.

“Don’t treat us like we’re little kids,” his brother replied. 

“You are little kids.”

“Are not.”

“Are too.”

“Are not! Little kids don’t fight vampires.”

Lex hissed and glanced at Lois, who was staring at Clark as if he suddenly had two heads.

“Vampires? Are you kidding me? There’s no such thing as vampires!”

“Is too! Tell her, Lex.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, squirt. Go watch something else or play computer games or something. And keep the volume down. I need to study.” He went back to the table. Mercifully, Clark lowered the volume on the tv so the only thing he heard was the occasional crash.

After a while, Lois announced she was bored and went upstairs to read. Clark came into the dining room and sat at the table. Lex felt the weight of his brother’s glare.

“What?” he said, looking up from the computer.

“Why didn’t you tell her?”

“Tell her what?”

“That vampires are real.”

Lex shot his brother a look. “Are you forgetting the fact that her father is a colonel in the army? Can you imagine what would happen if he found out? Not to mention what he’d do if he found out about you.” He shuddered, thinking of the nightmare he’d had about Clark being captured.

Clark bit his lip. “Oh, yeah. Guess that would be bad.”

“Yeah, no kidding!”

The door opened and his parents walked in looking dishevelled and more than a little shell-shocked. 

“Mom? Dad? What happened?”

“There was a … something happened at the school. The principal …”

“That little weasel,” Jonathan said, shaking his head. “Tried to write it off as drugs.”

They sat down at the table, still shaking. Lex got up and made them some coffee. As they drank the coffee the whole story came pouring out. A group of vampires had raided the school. A couple of the parents had been attacked. Fortunately, Buffy had been there to help fight them off and Giles had herded some of the parents to the library. 

“Wish I could have been there,” Clark said wistfully. “I could’ve helped Buffy fight them off.”

“Well, I’m glad you weren’t there, son,” Jonathan said. “There was this one vampire. Bleached blond, spoke with a British accent.”

Lex looked at his dad. “Are you sure? It sounds like the same guy we met the other night at the Bronze.”

They’d been dancing when the guy had called out saying some girl was being attacked in the alley. After Buffy had dealt with the vampire, the man had taunted Buffy, making it clear he’d set her up. 

“I wonder how that principal sleeps at night,” Martha mused. 

“Giles thinks he’s been placed there by the school administration to cover up all the incidents,” Lex told his parents.

“Well, it sounds like Giles might be right,” his father replied, telling them Giles had taken them aside while they’d been holed up in the library. Lex had told the English librarian that he had been honest with his parents about the vampire attacks but hadn’t given them details about Buffy being the Slayer. 

There was a knock on the door. Frowning, Lex got up to answer it, surprised to see Giles on the doorstep.

Dad got up. “Mr Giles, please come in.”

“Thank you, Mr Kent. Hello, Clark. I just wanted to check up on you,” he continued, turning to Martha. “After tonight’s events.”

“We’re fine,” Mom replied. “A little shaky, but …”

“Yes, completely understandable.”

“Who was that, uh, man?” Jonathan asked.

“He’s known as William the Bloody, although of late he’s been called Spike. I believe it is because of the way he’s killed his victims. I won’t go into more detail, but I do think you need to exercise caution. I would prefer it if this matter was not discussed, uh …”

“We understand,” Mom said. “The rest of Sunnydale can ignore what’s going on, but we can’t.”

“Your boys have proven rather helpful,” Giles told them, with a smile at Clark. 

“See, I bet I could have been a lot of help tonight,” Clark said. 

“Perhaps. Might I suggest you be very careful when you are out and about. And be discreet about who you share this information with. Your friend, Lois. Who, I’m sure is a charming young lady but you must remember who her father is.”

Which was exactly what Lex was trying to warn his brother about. He glanced up toward the stairs, sure he had heard some kind of movement. For a moment, he thought he’d seen a shadow on the stairs but decided he’d imagined it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured Jonathan and Martha would get caught up in Spike's raid on the school and given they have an alien for a younger son, the existence of vampires wouldn't be too much of a stretch. So, they're officially in the inner circle now.


	13. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Hallowe'en a spell causes chaos. Lex sees his brother in a new light.

If there was one thing Sunnydale didn’t need, it was Hallowe’en. As far as Lex was concerned, with the way the vampires and demons were attracted to the town, every day was Hallowe’en. 

It was just their luck that Snyder was on some kind of power trip and was handing Buffy, Xander, Willow and Lex pens and a sign-up sheet. The look on the man’s face told all four of them that they better sign up, or else. They were to supervise groups of children going trick-or-treating. 

The others complained loudly as they wandered down the hallway. As part of the sign-up, they would have to get costumes. 

“Ugh, I can’t imagine anything worse,” Lex murmured. 

“I was supposed to have the night off,” Buffy returned with a sigh. He frowned at her. 

“I would have thought Hallowe’en was like, uh, Christmas for vampires.”

The blonde shook her head. “Nah, not according to Giles. Hallowe’en is like dead for the undead. They stay in.”

Xander smirked. “Those wacky vampires. They just keep you guessing!”

They dumped their bags on the couch in the student lounge. Xander went over to the vending machine to buy a drink and was cornered by a Cro-Magnon looking guy. Larry Blaisdell. He was one of the football jocks who didn’t seem to be one of the brightest of a sad bunch. A big, beefy guy, he liked to use his brawn to bully the smaller guys and sexually harassed every girl in school. 

Lex had been targeted by the guy a few times but he’d learned a long time ago not to respond to the guy’s taunts and refuse to give him any ammunition. Xander was yet to learn that lesson. 

Buffy, seeing her friend in trouble, immediately approached them and grabbed Larry, slamming his head into the vending machine before picking up a diet root beer. Xander looked upset. More than that, Lex thought. He looked annoyed. 

Lex sighed as Xander began talking about the ‘guy code’. His friend yammered about something to do with bruises fading but sissy reputations lasting a lifetime. Lex shot the dark-haired teen an odd look. 

Xander glared at Buffy, then him before grabbing his bag and stalking off. Lex shrugged and went off after his friend.

“What the heck was that?” he asked.

“Nothin’,” Xander replied with a shrug.

“You know if you just ignored Cro Magnon guy, you might …”

His friend turned on him. “Oh yeah, it’s easy for you to say. No one else treats you like a loser.”

Lex cocked an eyebrow at him. “Uh, hello? Bald guy here? I’ve been treated like a freak since I was nine. Trust me, I know. It’s just … my dad always says that guys like that only do it to get a rise out of you. Plus they probably see something in you that makes them feel like the freaks. Didn’t you ever see Revenge of the Nerds?”

“Revenge of the what-what?”

“Nerds. It’s a movie. It’s like really old. But my dad told me that there’s this guy, a football jock. Only he’s like a really big nerd himself, except he’s afraid that if he lets people see that side of him, they’ll treat him like a loser too. Like I say, maybe Larry only tries to get to you because he in some way thinks you’re better than him.”

“Yeah, where did you get that pearl of wisdom?”

“Doesn’t matter.” 

Xander sighed and dumped his bag on the side of the concrete wall surrounding the garden. 

“Buffy’s never gonna see me as anything but a loser if she’s the one fighting off the jerks like Larry.”

“Hate to belabour the obvious Xander, but she doesn’t see you as boyfriend material. She sees you as a friend. Come on. You know she’s jonesing for Angel. Don’t know what she sees in the guy, considering he doesn’t have a pulse or anything, but …”

“Well, least we agree on that.”

The bell rang. Lex nudged his friend. “Come on. Biology class. I hear we get to dissect a sheep’s eye today.”

“Ugh. And I just ate, too.”

A couple of hours later, Lex was in a costume shop trying to find the perfect costume. Clark and Lois were also looking through the costumes. He spied Buffy and Xander making up for their little disagreement. The blonde was staring at something, an expression of rapture on her face. 

“Lex, can I get this?”

He turned to look at his brother. Clark had picked out a farmer’s costume. 

“Really?” he said. “Why don’t you get something else?” 

The ten-year-old shrugged. “I dunno. I guess I just want something, you know …” He leaned forward, whispering. “Normal.”

Lex nodded, realising what his brother meant. His abilities and his heritage could be a burden, not that the family had ever tried to make Clark feel that way. It was little wonder that all he ever wanted to be was a normal ten-year-old boy. 

“Okay.”

“What did you find?” Clark asked.

Lex sighed. “Nothing yet. I thought about getting a wrestler costume, but …” Clark wasn’t listening, his attention on something else.

“Lex! You so should get this!”

He looked at what his brother was pointing out. “Warrior Angel?” Sure, it could work, he thought. His comic book idol was bald, like him. Decision made, he grabbed the costume before anyone else could, then went to find Lois. 

The girl was staying with them for a week, since her father was once again away from the base. His mother had had an argument with the colonel a few days earlier about the way he treated his eldest daughter. She didn’t like the way he dumped her with one of his junior officers and left her to her own devices. 

“What did you get, Lois?” he asked.

“Just this,” she said, holding up a princess costume. She made a face and sighed. “I don’t wanna go trick-or-treating.”

“I don’t either,” Lex said, “but I can’t stay home and babysit while Mom’s working. Dad has some kind of meeting tomorrow night and he can’t stick around either.”

The girl sighed again. “I could have just stayed at the base. My dad …”

“Your dad’s a jerk,” Clark announced while Lex went up to pay. Lex turned to admonish his younger brother.

“Clark, you know what Mom said. You can’t talk about the colonel like that.”

“Well, he is!”

“My mom used to say if you can’t say anything nice about someone, don’t say anything at all!” Lois replied. 

“That’s exactly right, little girl,” the man at the counter replied. He had an English accent and an odd smarmy kind of smile. Lex disliked him on sight. “There we go. Have a good time trick-or-treating.”

The next afternoon, it was chaos at the school as Snyder did his best to annoy everyone by making sure the kids were going to have as little fun as possible. Lex met his brother and Lois before heading over to find Buffy and the others. 

Snyder pulled the children away and thrust a small group of four children in front of Lex. 

“These two are going with the Summers girl,” he said. 

Clark glared at him. “I wanna go with Lex!”

The principal shot him a glare. “You will go where I tell you, boy!”

“Don’t tell me what to do. I’m gonna tell my mom on you!”

“Clark, forget it. Just stay with Buffy and don’t give her any trouble.”

Buffy approached them. She was wearing a red gown which reminded Lex of some of the pictures he’d seen of eighteenth century girls. She’d also put on a dark wig. As much as he liked her with blonde hair, the dress and the dark hair made her look more elegant somehow.

“Buffy, you look amazing!”

She smiled. “So do you, Lex. Warrior Angel. It’s a good look for you.”

“Thanks,” he replied. 

Clark and Lois were pushed forward with another two children.

“This is your group, Summers,” Snyder told her, well, snidely. “No need to speak to them. The last thing they need is your influence. Just bring them back in one piece and I won’t expel you.”

Lex winked at Buffy and whispered. “Good luck.” He left with his own charges.

The children were starting to complain they were tired as it grew dark. Lex looked at them and paused outside a gate. 

“Okay, one more and we’ll head back to school, okay?”

As the children knocked on the door and the woman began to hand out treats, Lex began to feel a little strange. Almost dizzy. There was an odd sort of buzzing in the air. 

He turned and looked around. Where was he? What was this strange place? He heard a scream and whirled. A woman stood in the doorway looking terrified as four small monsters faced her. They were growling, threatening to almost bite her arm off.

He quickly got in between the monsters and the woman and spoke in a gentle voice.

“Ma’am, I will take care of this,” he said. He gently pushed her inside the house and barred the way, turning on the monsters. “Leave now!” he snapped. 

The monsters again tried to move past him but he gathered them all up and flew away with them, depositing them in what appeared to be a large park. 

He picked up more screams and took off into the air, his cape flying behind him. Closing in on the sounds, he saw the streets were in chaos. He flew down to help more civilians – a mother being chased by monsters. An older couple cowering in their car. They looked at him in wonder as he saved them.

A few minutes later he saw a boy who looked like a farmer and a girl who looked like a princess being pursued by a man with white-blond hair.   
He landed in the street and tapped on the man’s shoulder. 

“Excuse me, sir, but …”

The man turned. His face was distorted and it looked like he had fangs. 

“Wot? What the hell are you, mate?”

“I am Warrior Angel, defender of the innocent.”

The other man guffawed loudly, then attacked with what was clearly supposed to be a hard punch. He grabbed the man’s fist and shoved back, hard enough to knock the man or whatever he was, out.

“Lex!”

Frowning, he turned, looking for the source of the voice. 

“Here!”

He saw a young woman with red hair, wearing a short skirt and a tight blouse.

“Miss?”

“It’s me. Willow!”

“I am afraid I …” Never mind that, he thought. He waved his hand toward the boy and the princess. “These two …”

“I know. Come on. Buffy and Xander are at her house.”

“Who are they?”

She rolled her eyes. “Could you please just come with me?”

“There are others who may be hurt,” he said, starting to rise into the air. Willow stared at him in surprise. “I must protect the innocent.”

“Right now I need you to help Xander,” she said. “We have to find a way to stop this.”

“Stop what?” he asked, genuinely confused. 

Wllow sighed. “We so don’t have time for this.” He guessed it was meant to be under her breath but he had enhanced hearing and heard every word. 

Nevertheless he followed her, making sure the boy and the princess were protected as well. Willow indicated a two-storey house which he recognised as a Craftsman. How he knew that he had no idea.

As he entered the house he saw a man in army fatigues standing guard while a woman in a red gown cowered behind him, looking frightened. 

The sound of a woman screaming could be heard. Before he could go out to help her, the man in fatigues ran out and brought her inside. The woman was wearing an outfit that he supposed was meant to make her look like a cat. 

He listened as the redhead explained the situation to the other girl, whose name he soon learned was Cordelia. Willow told them she was going to get help.

“Lex, Xander, keep watch. But don’t hurt the civilians.”

“Civilians?” he asked the other man.

“I’ll explain later. Come on.”

They waited, watching the street for any trouble. Cordelia paced back and forth, grumbling, getting too close to the windows for comfort.

“Why does she get to go and get help? Why am I the one stuck here with …”

“Ma’am,” he said. “You need to keep away from the windows.”

The one Willow called Buffy asked why they didn’t go somewhere safer. Xander, meanwhile, was looking at a photograph on a table. He looked at them. 

“Lady’s right. This is us. We must have some kind of amnesia.”

“I don’t know what that is,” Buffy replied, “but I’m certain I don’t have it.”

He continued to watch out the window, ignoring what was going on. The two children were still whimpering.

“It will be all right,” he assured them. “I promise.”

“I want to go home,” the boy wailed. 

“Glad to see everyone’s all right,” a man said, entering the room. “It’s total chaos out there.” Xander and Cordelia turned to stare at him. He was tall with dark hair. He looked confused. “What’s going on?”

Cordelia explained. “They don’t know who they are. Everyone’s turned into a monster.”

The man looked even more confused as the lights went out. Xander turned.

“You, take the Princess and secure the kitchen. You …” he said, looking at the superhero. 

“Warrior Angel.”

“Right. Whatever. Why don’t you …”

“I should go out and help. If this man is correct and it is chaos …”

“Lady said to stay put,” Xander replied. “And I aim to stay put.”

The other man went with Buffy into the kitchen while they continued to secure the house. A few moments later there was a piercing scream. He ran into the kitchen where the man turned to look at him.

“She ran out. I couldn’t stop her.”

“Great.”

“I will go and look for her,” he announced.

“We can’t all go,” Xander replied. “What about the children?”

Cordelia stared at them. “Hey, don’t look at me. I’m not …” They ignored her and left the house. “Hey!” she called. “Do I look like a babysitter?”

They split up and began searching. He found more creatures with the unusual features and assumed they were the same as the blond-haired man. He fought off their attacks with little effort, making his way toward the waterfront where he heard more attacks. 

A couple of thugs in leather jackets tried to attack him. He made short work of knocking them out. As he did so, a strange sensation came over him.

Lex looked down. It was odd. The whole time he knew it was happening but it was almost as if it was happening to someone else. For a while, he couldn’t even remember who he was, let alone who anyone else was.

“Lex?”

He turned and looked. Xander ran out of a warehouse, followed by Buffy and Angel. Buffy looked normal again. So did Xander. 

“You guys all right?” 

“Yeah,” his friend replied. “You?”

He nodded. Then smacked his forehead. “Ah, crap. We left Clark and Lois with Cordelia.”

Buffy paused in the middle of her private conversation with Angel and looked at them.

“You left your brother with Cordelia? What were you thinking?”

“Gee, I don’t know, Buff, since I wasn’t exactly myself at the time. What exactly happened in there?”

“Spike,” she said. 

He nodded. “Yeah, I ran into him a while ago. So much for them taking the night off at Hallowe’en.”

Together they walked to Buffy’s house to pick up the children. Cordelia looked frazzled.

“It’s about freakin’ time,” she said. “These two were driving me … hey, you’re back to normal. Or you know, normal for you.”

He rolled his eyes at her. “Yeah, thanks Cordy. Clark, Lois, we gotta get you guys home.”

Their parents were home when they finally got there, two hours later than they should have been. Mom hugged them before sending the children up to bed.

“We were so worried. When we heard all the reports …”

“We thought that guy Spike was on the rampage. We called Giles and he told us what was going on.”

“Good,” Lex said. “Because we’re not too sure ourselves.” He smiled. “It was kind of cool though. I flew.”

His father stared at him, eyes wide. “You … flew?”

“Yeah. I mean, I was dressed as Warrior Angel.” He grinned. “I kind of get how Clark feels now. I mean, while I was Warrior Angel, I got to do all these amazing things. Like super speed and you know, super hearing and stuff, but I have to admit I wouldn’t like to be like that all the time. I just … I think I understand Clark a little better. People look at you in a totally different way.”

“Well, son,” his dad said, clapping him on the shoulder. “It looks like you got to see whether the grass really is greener on the other side.”

“Yeah,” he said, nodding. “Anyway, I’m beat. I’m gonna go up to bed.”

As he was undressing, he heard a knock on his door. Clark came in.

“Lex? Can I talk to you?” They sat together on the bed.

“Sure, squirt. What’s up?”

“I sort of … I mean, I remember everything that happened. It was scary. What was it like for you?”

“Honestly? It was kind of exciting. And really cool having those powers. But it was hard too. It kind of separates you from everyone doesn’t it?”

Clark nodded. “Yeah. I hate being different, sometimes.”

“You remember what Buffy said about being the Slayer? Just because she’s like a superhero, it doesn’t mean her life is easy or that she accepts every part of it. Sometimes she would give anything to have a day off.”

“I guess vampires don’t really take the day off.”

“No, they don’t. Warrior Angel doesn’t either, you know.”

“But he’s a guy in a comic book.”

“Sure he is, but that doesn’t mean his point of view is any less valid. Or yours. Now that I’ve sort of lived it, I understand now why you talk about being normal. Clark, we can’t change what you are, but we can try to help you make peace with it.”

Clark hugged him. “Thanks Lex.” 

“No problem squirt,” he said, ruffling his brother’s hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not totally happy with this chapter but I did think it would make an interesting premise. Lex with his fascination for Warrior Angel, dressing up as his idol. In the midst is Ethan's chaos spell, making Lex have real powers, which in turn makes him realise just how different Clark feels.


	14. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clark and Lois encounter Drusilla

Clark and Lois were sitting on the swings in Sunnydale park, waiting for Lex to come and get them. Clark had protested that he was fine to walk home by himself but his parents had insisted he wait for his brother. 

They’d gone to the park to play while Lex was doing community service. He wasn’t exactly sure what his brother had done but he thought it had something to do with what had happened when they’d gone up against Spike. Buffy had told him that the vampire had been trying to restore health to his girlfriend, Drusilla.

Clark hadn’t met the other vampire but from what he’d heard from Giles, the female vampire was nuts. 

Lois sighed as she swung her legs. “I’m bored!”

“Lex’ll be done soon,” he said. He looked up at the sky anxiously. The sun had already set and it was starting to grow dark. 

They all thought Spike was dead but his parents didn’t want to take any chances. They’d made sure Clark knew he had to be indoors before it grew dark. The blond vampire wasn’t the only threat out there. 

His friend sighed again. “Is it five o’clock yet?” she asked, sounding like she was whining. 

Clark glanced at his watch. It had already passed five o’clock. Where was Lex?

“I don’t like this,” Lois said uneasily. “There’s all kinds of weird stuff after dark.”

He hadn’t told her the truth about the vampires. As far as he knew, she still dismissed them as some kind of story, albeit a nightmarish one. Yet she’d been saying a lot of odd things lately. 

“What are you two doing out here, all alone?” a feminine voice said. She had an accent that sounded a little like Giles. 

Clark got up from the swing. “We’re waiting for my brother,” he said. 

She smiled. “Didn’t they ever tell you little girls and boys shouldn’t be out all alone when it’s dark?”

“I’m not a little boy!” He glared at her.

“You are. You’re just a baby,” she said. “Does your mummy still sing you to sleep?”

She began babbling some kind of nonsense about her mother then started to sing. 

“I’m ten,” he told her. “I don’t need my mom to sing me to sleep.”

She stopped singing and stared at him. “You’re a strange little boy.”

“And you’re a vampire,” Lois piped up. “I saw your picture in Mr Giles’ book.”

Clark stared at his friend. She glanced at him and shrugged before turning back to the dark-haired woman.

“I know your name. It’s Drusilla. They all thought you died.”

Drusilla continued to stare at them. Lois scrambled in her backpack and took out a small silver cross. The vampire giggled.

“Do you really think that will stop me little girl?”

“No, but this will,” Clark told her, shoving her hard enough for her head to collide with the steel frame of the swing set. He tried to hit her again but she blocked him.

“You’re very strong for a little boy,” she said. 

“I told you, I’m not a little boy.”

Lois, meanwhile, had grabbed her backpack and swung it hard at the vampire. Drusilla turned to look at her and began to chant something softly. Clark frowned as Lois stared at the woman. 

He picked up a heavy rock from the border of the sandpit and threw it hard at the vampire, then ran, grabbing Lois’ hand. He had no idea where they could run to if Drusilla decided to chase them, but as long as it got them some distance he was okay with it.

“Whoa, where are you two running off to?”

Clark looked up. Buffy smiled down at them.

“It’s Drusilla,” he said. She frowned at him.

“Drusilla? Where?” She looked in the direction they’d run from. 

Clark looked around. The vampire was gone. “She was right there.”

“He threw a rock at her head,” Lois told the Slayer. “You were so brave,” she added. 

Buffy nodded. “Come on. Let’s get you two home.”

“Lex was supposed to come get us from the playground,” Clark told her. 

“I saw him in town when my mom and I were at the mall.” Buffy took their hands. “Let’s go find your brother.”

They had no sooner left the park when Lex came running up to them, panting. 

“Clark! God, I’m sorry! Snyder was being a real … hey, Buffy.”

“We need to get the kids home. Drusilla’s alive. I need to call Giles.”

“Are you sure it was her?” Lex asked.

Buffy looked at Clark, but it was Lois who spoke up. “She looked just like that lady in the book,” she said. 

Clark turned to his friend. “I thought you didn’t believe there were vampires?”

She snorted. “I heard you guys talking one night. When that Spike guy attacked the school. You all thought I’d go and tell my dad.”

“Well, your dad is in the army, Lois,” Lex said. “Meaning he works for the government.”

“So?” she scoffed. “There’s a lot of stuff I don’t tell him. Think I’m stupid?”

Buffy looked at the girl. “No, Lois, we don’t think you’re stupid. But we do have to be careful who knows about the vampires. People like your dad wouldn’t like it.”

Mom sounded worried as Buffy related what had happened. She had called Giles and he was on his way over to the Kents to discuss the situation. 

Lois interjected with her own harrowing tale of survival, making the fight sound more dangerous than it actually was. 

Dad came home, having been working overtime.

“Buffy,” he said with a smile. “Are you staying for dinner?”

“Would it be okay?” she asked. “I should call my mom though.”

Mom smiled. “I’m sure Joyce will be fine with it. Do you think Rupert will want to stay for dinner? Or perhaps he has plans?” 

“Uh, I don’t know. I guess you could ask him. I don’t think he had any plans tonight. He and Ms Calendar – well, after what happened with that demon thing, I think that’s pretty much, you know. Done.”

Clark heard the knocking on the door and went to answer it. He looked up at Mr Giles.

“Hello, Clark. I hear you’ve had a little bit of an adventure.”

“I guess so.”

Giles wiped his feet on the doormat and followed Clark into the kitchen. 

“Hello Rupert. Would you like to stay for dinner? There’s plenty,” Mom said.

“Oh, well, that’s very kind of you, Martha. But shouldn’t Buffy and I …” He glanced at Lois, who rolled her eyes.

“I know about the vampires,” she said in a ‘well, duh!’ tone. 

“I see. Well, in that case, I would be delighted to accept your invitation. Now, Buffy, suppose you tell me about the vampire at the mall. And then perhaps we should discuss the little matter of Drusilla.”

Once dinner was over and the dishes were done, they all gathered around the table to talk. Clark listened as the adults discussed the problem, feeling a little left out of the conversation. There were times when he hated being his age. He was often excluded from a lot of things. 

Lois kicked his ankle. “I’m bored,” she said loudly.

Everyone looked at her. Mom scolded her gently. “Lois, sweetie, it’s not polite to interrupt.”

The eleven-year-old rolled her eyes and pushed back her chair with a loud scraping noise. She got up out of her chair and flounced off. Lex looked at Clark and shifted his gaze in the direction of his friend.

Sighing, Clark got up and went to look for her. She’d flopped down on the living room rug and turned on the tv. 

“I hate it when I’m treated like some little kid,” she said. “One day I’m gonna be a big reporter and they’ll have to listen to me.”

They’d recently done a unit in school on journalism and Lois had enjoyed writing a couple of articles and laying them out in a newspaper. She’d begun talking about being a reporter for a big newspaper.

“Lo, you can’t even spell reporter,” he told her.

She aimed a glare at him and snorted. “Like you care!”

They fell silent. Lois lay on her stomach, her feet in the air. She swayed them from side to side, her eyes practically glued to the television screen. Clark didn’t think she was paying any attention to what was playing.

“I thought vampires were s’posed to be strong,” she said.

“They are.”

“Well, how come you fought Drusilla? She could have bitten you, but you threw her like she was nothing.”

He shrugged. “I dunno. Guess I got lucky.”

She snorted again. “Yeah, right. How many vampires have you fought in like the last year? You must be really lucky.”

“Not that many,” he said. He pouted. “Lex still treats me like a little kid.”

“Well, you are, you big dummy.”

“Don’t call me a dummy! You’re the dummy!”

“No, I’m not. I’m older than you! And only a dummy would tell a stupid lie.”

“I didn’t lie!” he told her. “You said you didn’t believe in vampires. Remember? Vampires don’t exist. That’s what you said!” 

“So? I’m allowed to change my mind. It’s like a woman’s pre- prero- you know, like I have permission and stuff.”

Clark rolled his eyes. Girls!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I skipped over a few episodes as I wanted to get to the Bad Eggs one, but the encounter with Drusilla kind of took over in this chapter. This is not the same encounter as in Lie To Me.


	15. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lex has a project for teen health, with disastrous results

Lex was thoroughly bored. Their teen health class was having a unit on sex education, which was pretty much a waste of time for most of them. He knew of at least three in that class alone that had already done it.

His father had given him the ‘talk’ when he was thirteen. It had been almost amusing to watch Jonathan bumble and fumble his way through that. Especially since as a farmer it had been just a natural part of life.

He smirked, remembering when his little brother was about five. They still had the farm then and their bull had mounted one of the cows. Clark had watched in fascination and then asked their parents a million questions about it. 

“Mr Kent, I suggest you pay attention.”

Frowning, he sat up straight and looked at Mr Whitmore. The teacher was a nerdy kind of guy who wore plaid shirts and button-down sweaters. He appeared overweight although that could have been the clothes he was wearing. The horn-rimmed glasses didn’t help the image. 

“So where were we?” Whitmore continued speaking although Lex had no idea what he’d been saying. He tried not to yawn as the man went on about the human sex drive and moments of unwanted sexual thoughts and feelings.

Xander made a comment which had the rest of the class laughing at him. Lex had had that same problem but he wasn’t going to comment on it. 

What was even weirder was Cordy didn’t laugh, and she was usually the first to poke fun. She just looked kind of embarrassed, looking down at her book, a suspicious flush creeping up her face. 

Lex frowned. Xander had been sneaking off a bit lately and disappearing. He’d been acting kind of furtive as well, as if he had a big secret and wasn’t telling. 

If he thought about it, his friend had been acting weird ever since the career fair when Spike had taken Buffy’s boyfriend hostage to use him to cure Drusilla. 

Just last weekend, Drusilla had been in the park where Clark and Lois had been waiting for him to get off community service. Snyder had made him serve, saying it was either that or detention. For something he hadn’t actually done. Well, sure, they’d practically destroyed the church saving Angel, although it was Spike who had started the fire. 

His thoughts drifted to his brother’s little friend. It turned out she’d been eavesdropping and had heard them discussing the vampires. She’d apparently also been nosing in Giles’ books. He wondered what else she had heard. God forbid she heard the truth about Clark, he thought. 

“Mr Kent!”

He looked up, realising he had drifted off again. Everyone else had gone up to collect their ‘homework’. Lex frowned and stared at the trays of eggs. 

“What is this?” he asked. 

“If you’d been listening, you’d know that this egg is your baby,” Willow told him with a smirk. She held up a small, white egg. 

“What?” 

“We’re supposed to team up. Since you were day-dreaming, you get to be odd man out.” She frowned. “Oh, wait. Buffy didn’t show. So you’ll have to team up with her.”

“Oh, great!” he groaned. He looked at Xander. “Who’d you get?”

Xander indicated a cute girl holding another egg. “Kathy.” 

Willow cradled her egg protectively. There was a short discussion on their assignment before class was dismissed. They headed to the library where Buffy was going through the card catalogue.

Willow looked at their friend. “How come you weren’t in class?” she asked.

“Vampire issues,” Buffy explained, frowning. “What’s that?”

“Our homework assignment,” Lex told her. “Since I was odd man out and you weren’t there … congratulations, Buff, you and I just became parents of … an egg.”

She looked from him to the egg in his hand, then back again. “Huh?”

“It’s the whole ‘sex leads to responsibility thing’, which I really don’t get,” Xander replied.

Lex frowned at him. “Yeah, why am I not surprised?”

His friend sent a scowl in his direction. 

“So, uh, here. You take the egg home tonight,” Lex told Buffy.

“Wait a second. Why do I have to take it?”

“You weren’t in class. Snooze, you lose!”

“Ha! You were the one caught napping!” Xander retorted, obviously trying to get him back for what he’d said earlier. 

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’ll take first watch, but you get the next one, Baldy!”

“Whatever you say, Blondie!”

It was Giles’ turn to roll his eyes but he said nothing. Buffy grinned.

“Just don’t let your little brother get his hands on it,” she told Lex. 

The next day when both girls came into the library, they had their eggs in little baskets. They’d obviously taken the project a little too seriously, cringing every time Xander threw his egg up in the air.

It occurred to Lex to wonder why Willow and Xander still had the eggs if they were partnered up with someone else. Shouldn't their partner be picking up the slack? He shrugged, figuring it wasn't his concern and studied the girls.

Both looked a little lethargic, as if they had been burning the midnight oil or something. Giles commented on it as he shelved books. 

The girls gasped as Xander failed to catch his egg and it dropped on the floor. They all stared as it showed no sign of breaking. Caught, Xander told them he’d boiled it. 

The librarian told him it was technically cheating. 

Cordelia came in, talking about Mr Whitmore’s disappearance. Class had been cancelled because the teacher had failed to show up. 

“I think we should look around. Don’t you, Xander?”

Lex watched as the cheerleader began babbling some nonsense about closets until his friend guided her out of the library. Willow and Buffy still sat on the steps, refusing to move. 

“They’re getting weirder,” Willow observed dully. “Don’t you think they’re weird?”

“They’re definitely weird,” Buffy returned. She looked up at Giles asking him if she should feel guilty for not looking for the teacher.

The Watcher told her he’d rather she do some more research on the Gorches, a pair of vampire brothers. Buffy had apparently run into the elder brother in the mall the other day. 

She thrust the basket at Lex. “Your turn, Daddy,” she said. “I have to patrol.”

He grimaced. “Don’t call me that,” he said, taking the basket. She cringed and he realised he was tipping it up so the egg could have fallen out. 

“Don’t forget you have to fill out the diary and stuff,” she said. 

“Like I need reminding,” he returned with a sigh.

When he got home after school, he discovered Lois was once more staying with them.

“Again?” he said. “Why does she have to stay here, Mom? Can’t she stay with that family on the base?”

“I thought you liked Lois?” Mom asked.

“She’s all right. In small doses.”

“Well, a girl her age needs some stability. Otherwise she could get herself into all sorts of trouble.” She looked at the basket. “What’s with the egg?”

“It’s a school project. Sex-ed. I got teamed up with Buffy.” He huffed. “Don’t ask.”

His mother grinned. “I won’t then. Why don’t you go do your homework? Dinner will be shortly after your dad gets home.”

Clark and Lois were in his bedroom, playing a game on his computer. 

“What are you doing in my room?” he growled.

“We just wanted something to do,” Clark told him. “Ooh, what’s that?” he asked, nodding his head at the basket.

“Never you mind, squirt. Could you two go find something else to do? I’ve got homework.”

Lois eyed him curiously. “Hey, how come you don’t have hair?”

He stared at her, wondering why it had taken her so long to ask that question. 

“An accident when I was younger than you. Amscray, will you?”

“You’re boring!” the girl returned with a sigh, following Clark out the door. 

“Yeah? And you’re nosy!”

She snorted. “Well, I’m going to be a big reporter some day. So I have to be nosy.”

Clark pulled her out of the room before she could say anything else. Lex snickered. Kids.

He stayed up late that night, wanting to finish writing an essay. He hadn’t told his parents but the guidance counsellor had wanted him to think about applying for early admission to college. He was hoping to ease the financial burden it would place on them by trying to get an academic scholarship. 

“Lex,” Dad called through the door. “It’s late. You should be in bed.”

“Yeah, Dad. I’m just finishing up now.”

“Okay, son. Goodnight.”

“’Night, Dad.”

He shut down the laptop and got into bed, turning off the light. He’d just started to doze off down when he heard a strange scratching sound from the basked on his nightstand.   
He sat up and looked over to where it was bathed in moonlight. The eggshell cracked, making him jump back, startled. He peered at it.

“What the hell?” 

Suddenly something jumped out at him. He managed to get out of the way so it missed and skittered off the bed onto the floor. Lex reached over and turned on the light, his heart pounding. What was that thing?

His bedroom door opened. “Lex?”

“Clark, get in here and shut the door before it escapes!”

“Before what escapes?” his brother asked.

“I don’t know. Just hurry up!”

The ten-year-old quickly shut the door, then squealed. “Eww, there’s a spider or something. It’s huge!”

“It’s not a spider. I don’t know what it is. Will you be quiet? You’ll wake Mom or Lois.”

He scrambled on the bed, looking around frantically. Clark stood by the door, searching from his perspective. 

“There!” he cried out, darting forward. He moved at a speed Lex couldn’t follow. There was the sound of a high-pitched squealing noise which cut off abruptly. His baby brother held up something that reminded Lex of a creature he’d seen in a scary movie. 

“Eugh! What is it?” Clark asked, dropping the thing on the floor. It was clearly dead, its body broken. Slime had dripped from the body and on his hands. 

“I don’t know.” Lex peered over the side of the bed. “Thanks Clark.”

“Now I gotta go throw up, or something.”

“You’ve never thrown up in your life,” he told his brother. 

“Now would be a good time to start,” Clark returned. “Yuck!”

As his little brother went out to wash his hands, Lex turned his head to look at the eggshell in the basket. It was more than likely there were more of them, he thought. Maybe that explained why the teacher had disappeared. 

He’d have to talk to Buffy. 

At school the next morning, he quickly found Buffy. Cordelia was standing near the entry, talking to one of her ditzy friends. She had a teddy bear backpack on her back. 

He looked at Buffy, raising an eyebrow. She smirked.

“Apparently it’s a trend she’s taking credit for starting.”

“There’s a surprise. Hey, listen, the other night, when you had the, um, egg, did you notice anything weird?”

She shook her head. “No. I mean, I did feel kind of funky, but … Why?”

He took a container out of his backpack. “The egg hatched last night and, well …”

She looked in the container and made a face. “What the heck is that?”

“I don’t know. I’m thinking we should take it to one of the labs and dissect it or something.”

“Hey guys, what’s up?”

Lex turned and looked at Willow. “Hey. Have you noticed anything strange about your egg?”

The redhead shook her head. “No. Should I?”

He shrugged. “Something weird hatched out of my egg last night. Are you sure …”

“Nothing happened. I put mine in the fridge. You sure it’s not like a trap by the Gorches?”

“Well, how would they know anything?” Buffy asked. Lex thought she made a good point. 

Xander, meanwhile, was sitting on one of the planters, peeling his egg. He was about to take a bite out of it when he shrieked like a girl and dropped it. Red-faced, he noticed them staring at him and stood up, pointing to the egg and stammering.

“There’s a … thing.”

Since they had to go to class, they had to wait until after school to do anything about it. They found an empty lab and Lex began examining the hatchling.

“Can I just say Gyughhh!” Xander remarked.

“I see your ‘Gyughhh!’ and raise you a Nyaghhh!” Buffy responded, shuddering. 

“What is it?” Cordelia asked.

“Good question,” Lex replied. He poked at it with a scalpel, feeling nauseous. They’d faced vampires, even a giant praying mantis and an Incan mummy, but this was just gross. He told them how Clark had managed to kill the thing. 

“Kid’s handy to have around,” Xander replied. 

Willow joined them, telling them Giles would be there shortly but they were to start without him. 

Everyone watched as Lex began to cut into the thing. 

“How are we supposed to figure out what this thing is?” Xander asked.

“Not like it has an i.d. bracelet,” Buffy replied. 

“I don’t think that’s gonna help,” Lex told them. “This thing is … I don’t know if it’s a demon, or …”

“What if it’s an alien?” Xander asked. 

Lex looked up sharply at his friend. “What are you trying to say?”

“Nothing. It just looks like that thing we saw on that movie one time. Well, kinda. I’m not implying anything about your kid brother, FYI. I mean, you’ve seen Star Trek. They don’t all look human, you know.”

Lex shrugged. “Whatever.”

“I wonder if this is what happened to Mr Whitmore?” Xander asked. 

“He saw this and ran away?” Cordelia asked. 

“I think that would be like best case scenario,” Buffy replied, always the glass half-empty persuasion. Lex shot her a look to tell her she wasn’t helping. Especially considering they’d already dealt with a teacher being eaten before. 

“It’s possible that Mr Whitmore wasn’t harmed,” Willow piped up. “Maybe the offspring simply used him to return to the mother bezoar.”

Xander turned to look at their friend just as Cordelia bent to pick something up.

“What?”

Lex could suddenly hear the lines from an old tv show. ‘Danger, Will Robinson’. Just as Cordelia hit Buffy with a metal bar. With a gasp, Xander turned to look at the brunette and Willow smashed a microscope over his head with it. Lex stepped back, intending to run for it, but Cordelia hit him with the bar. 

He woke up in what looked like a janitor’s closet. His head was pounding. Buffy was leaning over him.

“Lex, you okay?”

“What the hell hit me?” he asked. 

“Probably the same thing that hit me,” she replied wryly. “You’ve got a massive bruise on your head.”

“Yeah, you too,” he told her, indicating the mark on her forehead. 

Xander groaned and sat up. “Last time Cordy dragged me in here, it was a lot nicer.”

Lex and the Slayer looked at each other.

“Don’t tell me, I don’t wanna know,” Lex said. 

They slowly got to their feet. Lex felt nausea bubble up but swallowed it down as they began talking about what was going on. Buffy quickly came to the conclusion the hatchlings had somehow taken the girls over. 

“So why drag us in here?” Xander asked.

The answer was fairly clear. There were three eggs on the floor. One of them looked like it was about to hatch. Buffy quickly stomped on the eggs, shuddering as a bluish goop emerged. 

“Ugh. I’m gonna have nightmares about this for weeks,” Lex commented. 

“Yeah, tell me about it.”

“So, what do we do?” he asked her.

“Let’s get to the library and talk to Giles.”

They made their way to the library, keeping a wary eye out for any sign of the girls. The library was empty but books were scattered on the table. Buffy told them she’d gone to Giles that morning after Lex had showed her what had hatched and told him what had happened. They assumed the Watcher had begun researching. 

A book was open on the table. On the page was an image of a tentacled monster.

“I’d say he found something,” Buffy told them.

“Or something found him,” Xander replied, looking down at their feet. The remains of an eggshell lay beside his foot. 

Buffy began reading from the book telling them the hatchling attached itself to a host and took control of their motor functions. The question was, for what purpose?

They were distracted by another student screaming in the hall. Lex went to look and found Jonathan Levinson flailing about. He fell to the floor before they could move to help him, then got up as if nothing had happened, a curiously blank look on his face.

“Are you okay?” Lex asked.

“I’m fine,” Jonathan said. “I slipped.”

As the dark-haired student headed down the hall, they all looked at each other and began following. Jonathan headed to the boiler room, stepping through a hole before going down a tunnel.

They continued to follow, doing their best not to be seen. Several people were working in a chamber, digging up concrete. Other students were handing off eggs. Some kind of creature was in the pit. 

Buffy whispered to them urgently, telling them to stop the eggs being taken out at all costs. She ran to the boiler room to find a weapon of some description.

Lex and Xander meanwhile entered the chamber, pretending to be possessed by the hatchlings. They followed Cordelia and another student into the tunnel. Lex grabbed the other student and shoved him into the wall, knocking him out, while Xander fought with Cordelia. He was clearly unwilling to hit a girl but Cordelia had no such compunction, striking the same place where she’d hit him earlier. He screamed and punched her, knocking her out. 

Lex picked up the box. “We need to destroy the eggs,” he said. 

Nodding, Xander helped him crush all the eggs. They returned to the chamber only to see Buffy with two vampires. Buffy and one of the vampires were trying to fight the possessed students and staff members. The Gorches, Lex presumed. 

The second vampire was looking at the creature. A tentacle wrapped itself around his neck and pulled him into the pit. With a scream, the remaining vampire turned on Buffy. At the same time, Giles attacked her with a pickaxe. Buffy rolled out of the way but the mother Bezoar’s tentacle wrapped around her ankle and began pulling her in. 

Lex darted forward, hoping to help his friend, but it appeared she didn’t need any help. She grabbed the pickaxe as she was dragged into the pit. A minute or two later everyone who had been possessed dropped to the floor, unconscious. 

The vampire watched in disbelief as Buffy, covered in purple slime from the creature, climbed out of the pit. He took one look at her face and decided he should cut and run while he still had the chance. 

Half an hour later, they stood outside, watching as emergency workers went in to investigate. Giles was trying to cover by telling everyone who’d been caught up that it was a gas leak. He appeared confused.

“So what was it, really?” he asked them.

“Stick with the gas leak story,” Xander told him. 

“Trust me, you’re better off not knowing,” Lex added. 

“Lex?”

He turned. His parents had turned up with Clark and Lois. 

“Honey, are you all right?” his mother asked.

“I’m fine, Mom.”

She quickly noticed the bruise on his head. “Oh sweetie, you’re hurt!”

“I’m fine. Really. It’s just a bruise. Can we just go home?”

His dad smiled. “Sure son. But we would like to know what’s been going on.”

He shrugged. “Put it down to the everyday weirdness that is Sunnydale.” He smiled at his brother, realising if it hadn’t been for his help, things could have ended up a lot worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the episode that inspired me to write the story. I had this idea of what if it was Lex who had to deal with the hatching egg and Clark somehow manages to kill it. 
> 
> I've used some of the dialogue from the episode but still kept it to Lex's p.o.v. I also figured that if they were supposed to partner up with someone from the class, then surely they would have to take it in turns to be the 'parent', rather than both having an egg. The episode did contain a few plot holes where that was concerned.


	16. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drusilla and Spike's latest scheme spells trouble for the Scooby Gang

They’d decided to have a surprise party for Buffy’s seventeenth birthday at the Bronze. Giles had even gone along with it and spoken to management to ensure that there would be no gatecrashers.

On the day of her birthday, however, Buffy looked down. Lex had overheard the conversation between her and Giles the day before when she’d told him about her dream.

Ever since they’d found out Drusilla was alive, she had been more worried than ever about Angel, and about everyone else. She had told Lex she’d been concerned that Drusilla might come after Clark, now that she knew he was different. They didn’t really know how vulnerable the ten-year-old was. Or if he could be turned into a vampire. 

Lex had had nightmares about that. As well as the continuing nightmares about Clark being captured by the Government. Imagine, he had thought, how dangerous his little brother could be as a vampire. He’d be unstoppable. 

He watched as Giles tried to console his friend. She had been at home with her mother when Joyce had dropped a plate. It had been almost exactly as it had been in Buffy’s dream. 

He frowned. “Did your mother drop a plate in the dream?” he asked. 

“No, she was holding a coffee cup. And she was at the Bronze.”

Giles shook his head. “Lex, dreams are not an exact science. Little details may differ from reality …”

“But this sounds like a prophetic dream,” he said. “I’ve been reading up on them ever since I had that nightmare about Clark being captured. And Buffy, you’ve had them before.”

Giles shot him a look. This wasn’t exactly providing much comfort to the girl.

“But Drusilla kills Angel in the dream,” she said.

“You’ve been worried about that ever since we found out she was alive.” Lex put a hand on her shoulder. “Buff, the thing about prophetic dreams is that it is possible to change things in them.”

“He’s right. You dreamt that the Master had risen but you stopped that.”

Xander nodded. He’d interjected his usual brand of wit which hadn’t provided much comfort either. 

“You ground his bones to make your bread.”

“That’s true,” she said, then frowned. “Except the bread part.”

Giles nodded and told her to go to class and just continue on with the day as normal. With a sigh, Buffy grabbed her bag and left the library. Willow sighed, saying she guessed the party was off. 

“No, I think we should have the party,” Lex told them. Giles nodded his agreement. 

Willow still looked worried that Angel and Buffy might be in danger. 

“For them, it’s just another day at the office,” Lex said. 

That night, they gathered at the Bronze for the party, waiting for Ms Calendar to bring Buffy. Cordelia sighed. “Is she coming? I’m hungry,” she complained.

“It’s not time yet,” Xander told her, shooting her a look.

Lex looked at his friend, wondering if there was something going on between the two of them. Ever since the bad eggs incident, there had been some kind of vibe. He still wasn’t sure how the cheerleader had made it to their inner circle. Sure, she had been with them when they’d fought off the Hellmouth demon and she’d helped out on other occasions but she still managed to insult them on the odd occasion.

Willow was looking over the presents with Oz, who was apparently her date. Lex didn’t know Oz that well, other than the fact he was with a band which while not great, could be good if they worked at it. They sometimes played at the Bronze. Oz was rather taciturn although it was pretty much guaranteed that when he did speak he had something important to say.

“Ooh, even Clark got her a present,” Willow said. 

Lex glanced at the gift. The box hadn’t been wrapped too well, but he supposed he could give his brother a B+ for effort. 

“He wanted to come but our parents said no. Being a school night and everything.”

“Oh, yes, quite,” Giles replied. 

There was a loud noise behind the building and suddenly a window shattered. They all went to investigate and saw Buffy fighting a vampire. She quickly turned him to dust.

Cordelia, as tactful as always, jumped up and yelled: “Surprise!”

Everyone else turned to stare at her while Buffy looked confused, asking what was going on. When she learned it was a surprise party for her birthday she looked pleased, even touched. 

Jenny came in, carrying what appeared to be a very heavy box. They all gathered around a table. Buffy opened the box. It was an arm, with no body attached. Yet it seemed to be alive all the same, the hand grabbing the Slayer by the throat and proceeding to choke the life out of her. Thankfully, Angel was able to pull it off and lock it back away.

“What the hell was that?” Lex asked, concerned for his friend. 

“Party favour?” Xander returned. Lex shot him a look. 

Angel looked worried. He began to explain that there had been a demon from centuries ago called the Judge. It was supposed to destroy humanity. Giles added his own contribution saying an army was sent to fight the demon but they could only dismember it, not kill it. 

Buffy told them the vampires had been Spike’s men. Which meant Drusilla had to be behind it. 

The only way to stop Drusilla from carrying out her plan was to get the piece as far away as possible. 

Jenny was quick to nominate Angel, saying he was the only one able to protect the thing. It meant he would have to get on a ship to Asia, he told them. He couldn’t take the chance of encountering daylight on a plane. The matter effectively broke up the party before it even had a chance to start. 

They went back to the school library to do some research on the Judge, just in case things went wrong while Buffy went to see Angel off with Jenny. Lex noticed Giles looking anxiously at the clock from time to time. Willow appeared a little low, worried about her friend but also sad on her behalf due to the Slayer having to say goodbye to her boyfriend. Xander was his usual self, cracking jokes but with an underlying seriousness to his words. 

Buffy burst through the door, wearing different clothes than when she’d left. She told them some vampires had jumped them when they’d been saying goodbye. They’d got away with the box. 

Their research hadn’t been helpful. All the books had said the Judge couldn’t be stopped. Not by a weapon that had been forged. Buffy didn’t look happy at this news.

The only thing they could do was stop the Judge from being assembled, which was easier said than done. Drusilla and Spike had done a virtual disappearing act. 

Willow decided they needed to do a Round Robin. Lex called his parents. His father answered the phone.

“How was the party, son?”

“Pretty much a washout,” he said. “I’ll fill you in later. We might have to do an all-nighter.”

“Everything all right?”

“Not really. End of the world stuff. Just don’t tell Clark or Lois. They’ll want to come along and they’ll only get in the way.”

“Don’t worry about that. Just come home when you can.”

As he hung up the phone, Xander clapped a hand on his shoulder.

“You know, the whole point of a Round Robin is to lie to your parents.”

“I’m not going to lie to my dad,” Lex told him. “Besides, they know the score and they trust me. Especially because I don’t lie to them.”

They continued to look through the books until two in the morning, but weren’t having a whole lot of luck. Buffy had fallen asleep on top of a pile of books in Giles’ office. 

They all turned, startled, when Buffy screamed out loud for her boyfriend. Lex looked at Giles and shrugged. 

A minute or so later Buffy came out, telling them she knew where Spike and Drusilla were. 

“Yes, good, but you do need a plan,” Giles told her.

She’d clearly already thought things through, telling them she and Angel would go check out the factory and see how far things had progressed where assembling the Judge was concerned, while the rest of them would need to check shipping yards or any place the boxes could be coming into town. 

Xander left to check out a few places while Lex worked with Willow to check the ‘net to see if they could find any shipping information. 

They’d managed to find some shipping information but the boxes had already been collected. It looked like they were too late. 

Giles sighed as students began to pour in, unaware of the growing danger. 

Willow looked at him. “Have you heard from Buffy?” she asked.

He shook his head, looking worried. 

Xander returned, telling them he’d checked out the bus depot but had found nothing. 

“Shouldn’t we go to the factory and look for them?” he asked when told Buffy and Angel hadn’t checked in.

“And do what?” Lex asked. “If Buffy couldn’t go up against the Judge, what makes you think we could?”

“Well, we can’t just sit around and do nothing!”

As they began to argue, Willow cut in, upset. As she went off on her tirade, Buffy came in. She was at least not physically hurt but there was a look on her face that Lex couldn’t decipher. She quickly told him the Judge was live and ready to do some damage.

She appeared upset when she discovered no one had heard from Angel. She quickly explained that they’d got separated after they’d escaped from the factory. Lex frowned, wondering why it felt like she wasn’t telling the full story. 

His own worry increased when he overheard Willow talking to her on the phone at the library after school. Even she felt something else was up with their friend. 

The phone rang and Willow picked it up.

“Buffy? Oh, hi Mrs Kent. Yeah, he’s right here.”

Lex took the phone with a frown. “Mom?”

“Sweetheart, I know you have things going on there, but I need you to look after Clark and Lois for tonight. They’ll be there shortly.”

“Mom, I can’t. You know I …”

“Lex, honey, I’m sorry, but a last minute meeting came up at work and your dad’s working late too.”

Great, he thought with a sigh as he hung up. Not only did they have trouble with a demon that apparently couldn’t be killed, but now he had to babysit his little brother.

***

Clark, meanwhile, was walking with Lois to the high school. 

“How come your brother didn’t come home last night?” she asked.

“I dunno. Dad said it was some kind of project.”

“That’s what he always says. I bet it was vampire stuff.”

Clark shrugged. While he hated being left out, Buffy had explained to him that sometimes there were things that weren’t appropriate for a boy his age. He always liked that she never talked down to him. She was cool. 

As they reached the high school, they entered through a back door near the library and walked down the corridor. Willow was shouting something at Xander and looked extremely upset. Clark was going to say ‘hi’ but figured she was too upset to even notice him. Sure enough, she walked by without even talking to them. 

Xander looked at him. “What are you two doing here?” he asked.

“Mom had a meeting she couldn’t get out of and Dad’s working. Lois’ dad can’t pick her up either.”

The dark-haired teen sighed. “Fine. You know where everything is, but don’t get nosy. We’ve got enough to deal with without you two butting in.”

Clark glared at him. Xander was being kind of mean. He had no idea why since Xander had always been the one who would tell him jokes. Even dirty ones, although Mom would have a fit if she knew. 

Giles greeted them as they walked into the library. It was a mess, with books strewn all over the tables. Whatever they were working on, it was big. 

“Hello, Clark, hello Lois. Why don’t you two go sit down over at that table and start working on your homework,” he suggested quietly. 

They did so, trying to work while Lex, Xander, Giles and Cordelia moved back and forth, discussing something about a judge. Lois frowned. 

“Why are they talking about the army?” she whispered. “Should I go get my dad or something?”

Clark shrugged. “I dunno.” He shut his maths textbook with a loud smack. “I’m hungry. You wanna go get something from the snack machine?”

She nodded. “Yeah. You got any money?”

He jingled some coins in his pocket. “I got my allowance.”

They slipped out, unnoticed by the preoccupied Scoobies and started to make their way to the cafeteria. The lights suddenly went out. 

“Clark?”

He turned and tried to peer through the darkness. “Angel?” he asked.

“Yeah, it’s me. What’s going on? What’s with the lights?”

“I dunno.”

“Oh well, let’s not worry about that. Why don’t you two come over here? Got something to show you.”

Lois started toward him but Clark grabbed her hand and pulled her back. Buffy’s boyfriend was acting a little too friendly. Even though he knew about Clark and his abilities, Angel always treated him like he was a nuisance. As if he had no patience for the ten-year-old. 

“It’s okay,” Angel said. “Trust me.”

Clark glanced at Lois and began walking toward the vampire with a soul. 

“Get away from him,” Ms Calendar called although Clark wasn’t sure which one she was referring to.

He felt Angel grab him with a hand around his throat. The vampire was strong, but Clark wasn’t exactly weak either. He grabbed Angel’s wrist and bent it, pressing down just hard enough that it wouldn’t break any bones but would still be painful. The vampire gasped and tried to break the hold. Clark shoved him away and ran back toward Lois.

“How did you do that?” she whispered.

He shrugged. “I dunno.”

“It’s just like that time with Drusilla,” she said. 

He groaned to himself. So much for trying to keep his secret. He had no idea how he was going to explain everything. 

Angel was still cursing, yelling something at Ms Calendar who had said something about Angel not being Angel anymore.

The vampire spoke again.

“Wrong. I am Angel. At last. I’ve got a message for Buffy.”

“Why don’t you give it to me yourself,” Buffy said behind him. She’d obviously come through the door without him hearing her. 

“Well, it’s not the sort of message you can actually tell. It involves finding the bodies of all your friends.”

As Buffy confronted him, Ms Calendar pulled Clark and Lois away. She was holding a wooden cross, although it was pretty much useless.

“Get back to the library,” she told them. 

Clark paused, wanting to help Buffy, but it appeared Angel wasn’t going to do anything more than taunt the blonde. He followed the teacher into the library and sat down at the table while she brought everyone else up to speed.

Giles and Lex went out to turn the power back on, taking the cross with them. Clark doubted it would be much help if Angel decided to try attacking them again, but it looked like he’d had his fun for the night.

“I wasn’t scared,” Lois said as she leaned over to whisper in his ear. “Were you scared?”

He shot her a look. He’d almost wet his pants, he was so scared. Not that he would tell her that. 

Buffy sat down at the table, looking extremely upset. Giles laid a fatherly hand on her shoulder. 

“Are you all right?” he asked.

She nodded. Clark could see she was near tears. 

Giles began pacing back and forth. “So we’re sure Angel has reverted back to Angelus?”

“We’re sure,” Xander replied.

“What are we going to do?” Cordelia asked.

“I’m leaning toward blind panic myself,” Giles returned. Ms Calendar admonished him.

“Don’t talk like that. The kids …”

“I’m sorry,” he said. 

Clark frowned at the English librarian. If he was scared then it was bad. 

“Who’s Angelus?” Lois asked.

“It’s a long story,” Lex said. 

“Angelus is Angel before he got his soul back,” Xander explained.

“Apparently not that long,” Lex responded. 

“I don’t get it,” the eleven-year-old said with a frown.

“Of course you don’t. It’s not meant for a child your age to understand,” Giles told her.

“I’m not a child,” Lois answered. “I’m eleven.”

“All the same …”

Buffy got up and began walking away. Giles called after her but she ignored him. 

“We still have the Judge to deal with,” Xander said. 

“What’s the Judge?” Clark asked.

“A demon,” his brother explained. 

“But you guys have fought demons before.”

“Not like this, squirt. This is one demon that can’t be stopped. Apparently.”

Xander shook his head. “No, if that were true, then he wouldn’t have been in pieces to start with. All the books say that no weapon forged can stop him. It took an army … yada yada.”

“Well, why don’t we ask my dad?” Lois said.

Giles shook his head. “I doubt your father would even believe this. You haven’t told him about Buffy, have you?”

“No,” she said with a scowl. “Like I tell my dad everything,” she scoffed. “He wouldn’t care anyway.”

“That’s as may be, but I need your assurance, young lady.”

She stared at him, confused. Lex looked at Giles. “I doubt she’d have told the Colonel or else we’d have heard all about it by now.”

“He’s not a colonel now,” she said. “He just got promoted.”

“Well, how nice for him,” Lex said sarcastically. 

“I kind of had a thought,” Xander said. “And I think I’ve got an idea.” He looked at Willow. “I’m kinda going to need Cordy for this one.”

Giles nodded. “All right. You do whatever it is you’re planning. I don’t think there’s anything more we can do tonight. Lex, do you need a ride home? I’d rather not have you walking the streets with the children with Angelus out there.”

Clark balked at being described as a child but didn’t say anything. 

“Giles, no offence, but I don’t think we’d fit in your car,” Lex said with a chuckle. The Englishman shot him a withering look. 

“I can drop them off,” Ms Calendar said. 

“All right. But be careful.”

Their parents still weren’t home when they got there. Lex began making dinner while Clark and Lois sat at the table.

“So, how come you could fight off Angel?” Lois asked, picking off the frosting on a slice of cake.

“Oh, Buffy’s been teaching him a few things,” Lex spoke up. Clark sent his brother a relieved look.

“But …”

Lex thrust a glass of milk at her. “Drink your milk, Lois.”

“Eugh, no, I hate milk.”

“You always have milk when you’re here.”

“’Cause your mom puts chocolate in it.”

“Well, why didn’t you say so? I think Mom has the chocolate powder here somewhere,” Lex said, looking in the cupboard. 

“When’s your dad picking you up?” he asked as he stirred chocolate in the milk and handed it back to her. 

She shrugged. “I dunno. Sunday, maybe. He’s got some big project he’s working on and he didn’t want me getting in the way.”

“What about your little sister? What’s her name?”

“Lucy. She’s at boarding school, remember?” She sighed. “She’s so lucky. She gets to go to some school in Europe and I’m stuck here. Dad’ll probably be transferred, now he’s a brigadier general.”

“Is that likely?” Lex asked.

She shrugged. “Yeah. We’re always moving around bases.”

“Well, that’s kinda unfair,” Clark said. “It’s like you’re getting dragged around without any say.”

“He’s my dad,” she said. “It’s been like that since my mom died.”

Clark decided to change the subject. “What was Xander talking about?”

“I don’t know,” Lex told him. “I’m guessing he’ll tell us when he’s ready.”

***

Lex found out the next day exactly what Xander’s plan was. He’d taken Cordelia, Willow and Oz, who had a van, to the army base where he’d stolen a rocket launcher. Now that Lex thought about it, it made perfect sense. A rocket launcher wasn’t exactly a ‘weapon forged’. 

Buffy was clearly more than impressed with Xander’s initiative. Lex had the sense she was not just upset with Angelus but extremely angry. When he heard about Ms Calendar’s real background and her uncle’s death, he was just as angry. 

The factory appeared deserted when they took the launcher. Lex looked at Buffy.

“So where would they go?” he asked.

It was obvious they would need to go somewhere crowded so the Judge could get as many bodies as possible. The Bronze was closed, but the movie theatre was open at the mall.  
As they strode down the main walkway toward the cinemaplex, Buffy gave orders to get as many of the minion vampires as they could but to leave the Judge to her. 

The demon was already at work when she fired an arrow from a crossbow, getting its attention. Angelus and Drusilla stood by its side, smirking. The demon looked at Buffy arrogantly, clearly thinking she couldn’t possibly have anything to defeat it.

Some of the shoppers screamed as Buffy prepared to fire the rocket launcher. Lex and the others got down behind a counter, taking cover. There was an explosion and charred bits of the Judge scattered around them. 

As they began picking up the pieces of the demon amid the chaos of shoppers running for their lives, Buffy went after Angel. The overhead sprinklers came on and they had to work while getting saturated. The vampire minions, along with Drusilla, had run off as soon as they’d realised the Judge had been so easily defeated.

As soon as he got home, Lex ran past his parents to his bedroom to change out of his sodden clothing. He’d just started to get his shirt off when there was a knock on the door.

“Not now, Clark.”

The door opened and his mother came in. “It’s just me, sweetie.” She came over and gasped at his appearance. “Why are your clothes wet?”

“Uh, long story,” he said. He struggled, the fabric sticking wetly to his skin. 

“Here, let me help you,” she said. “Let’s get you out of these wet clothes.”

He explained about the Judge as he took off his clothing, fighting the urge to hide himself. His mother tsked.

“Please, I used to bathe Clark when he was little. I’ve seen it all.”

“Mom, I’m seventeen, not three!”

“All right. Fine.” She turned away and went out, coming back in with a soft towel. “Dry yourself off before you put new clothes on.” 

He turned his back on her and quickly dried himself off, grabbing clean underwear. He then turned back to face her.

“So, anyway, Xander managed to get this rocket launcher from the army base and …”

“Do you mean he stole it? Oh dear.”

“Well, he kind of had to, Mom. The army wasn’t exactly going to just give it to us. Anyway, it worked.”

“I’m sure the Colonel will see reason.”

“I doubt that,” Lex said. “And Lois’ dad is a brigadier-general now. He got a promotion.”

“I see.”

“Did you know she said he’s probably going to get a transfer soon?”

“Well, we can’t have that. That little girl needs a stable environment, not living out of a suitcase.”

“I guess.”

She sighed. “I’m not happy that you had to steal from the army but I can understand why.”

“If it helps any, it wasn’t me, Mom. I don’t know how we’re going to explain it to the army anyway. I mean, once they find out we used it at the mall …”

That was something they would have to try to figure out. Once the army realised the rocket launcher was missing, they would have to investigate. Of course, it was partly their fault, thanks to lax security, but they could all wind up in serious trouble. Xander especially.

He just hoped Giles would be able to figure out what to do. If the army brass was anything like Sam Lane, Lex doubted any of them would listen to reason. 

They’d just have to cross that bridge when they got to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something occurred to me on a rewatch of the episodes. How did the army manage to ignore such a blatant theft, considering the rocket launcher was used in the mall. 
> 
> It also bugs me that the continuity seemed to be off in the episode. Xander states he has a plan and tells Cordy to meet him in half an hour. Buffy goes home and falls asleep then dreams about Angel, picking up a clue about Jenny before she returns to the school. It appears to be the next day. Then it's night and Xander is breaking into the army base. If he'd told Cordy to meet him wearing something 'trashy' the night before, why would they have waited a whole day? 
> 
> Anyway, I've tried to make it a bit more logical.


End file.
